Journey To Hearth's Warming
by GryphonStar
Summary: A spell is activated, sending them into the past. Now, with no way home, they must live through events of Hearth's Warming. Only the events aren't playing out exactly like the history books. All while a mysterious wendigo makes a move that might change the future they once knew. [AU],[Anthro],[StarlightxOC],[TwilightxOC]
1. Prologue: Snowflakes

_Give into the monster. The bastard, the killer and the butcher._

 _I was once asked this once. It was posed to me by a wendigo that seemed to have an eternal hatred for the world._

 _I didn't want to give in, nor ever believe his words. Why would such a thing ever seem right? But after hearing everything I look back on my journeys._

 _From fighting a mare that would later become my friend and my student to travels across many timelines desperately trying to find my way home, memories of old and new fly by. Should I have given_ into _what nature had intended for us, or should I have save as many as I could no matter what the cost of my sanity_ may be _?_

 _Should I have joined him on his crusade, or should I have left him to rot away? As I walked, I can only pray that the right choice has been made for the cost of being wrong could worse than being right._

* * *

Snowflakes wander through the maddening cold of the frost covered beach as the waved kicked in defiance of the ice trying to form over it. Alone a deer-like monster was leaning over a group of corpses. The monster scratched and pulled at the bodies. He shivered and twisted, removing his claws when no response was given. He lifted his head up to the Moon, snowflakes fell from his face. An object on his neck began to glow maroon red and pulsed like a heart. Grasping it tightly without even looking he yanked it off and exhaled heavily as he heard footsteps approach him.

The monster turned and roared at the approaching figure, bucking his deer-like horns right at the figure's heart. His eyes widened and he drew back at the sight of a thin blue goat on all four legs.

"They are all dead, aren't they?" the goat examined. The goat lowered his head upon one of the bodies and took in a deep whiff. "And yet she is not among them?

The monster's eyes narrowed and his cheeks stretched back to reveal his teeth. He bucked his horns again and roared at the goat again, yet the goat refused to yield. The monster's eyebrows burrowed over his eyes as he looked at the object in his hand. He squeezed it until the edges cut his hand and cast it to the ground. The goat vanished the very moment the object left the monster's hand.

The monster watched the object until it's glow faded. He knocked it away and swung around to the waters a few meters behind him. His feet gritted into the ground as he lowered down to all fours. He pushed forward and leaned into the water, landing on its surface. The rebellious water bent to his rage, stopping solid under his feet. The stillness spread like a plague as he ran.

Miles across the water stood a great castle. It stood against the waters, completely unaffected by the giant waves that thrashed against it. Inside the castle's outer walls many stood at the ready. Despite the cold shivering them to the bone they refused the falter in anyway.

In the front a bold blue with a dark green mane in a silver noble armor and a royal blue cape stood ready. He smiled as he felt the cold hit his face. "The monster will soon be here."

"Yes, my King," a red stallion approached. "Soon we will have revenge for what he did to our land. But most of all…" He stopped and stared at the ground.

The King glanced at his the General, before letting his own eyes fall. For a single moment his smile gritted, but that dissolved when his eyes raised back to his the General. He placed his hand on the soldier's shoulder. "It's okay to talk about what happened. I above all of you want my revenge for what he did."

"It would have been easier if that other king hadn't of..." Abruptly he was stopped as a white mare in a nurses uniform ran onto the field. The General's eyes went wide upon seeing her. "What is it Chorale?

She peered at him for one moment before turning toward the King. "Your majesty, I'm sorry to disturb you at such a time, but it has begun."

The King shifted his sight to the nurse and frowned at her words. He gripped his sword tightly and looked toward the red stallion. "General, defend these walls until I return. Do not let that monster in here."

"I understand my king," he nodded as the King took his leave.

The King directed his movement toward the path that the mare had come from. He walked rather slow as if uncertainty was setting in. The moment he heard the screams he waved his head back and forth before breaking into a run. He passed by many empty chambers, the echoes of screams increased in loudness the deeper he went into the castle.

Shortly he arrived at the source of the screams, a door that glowed with a fiery light. His eyes strained and his breathing trembled as he reached for the knob. He stopped just mere inches from touching it as his arm persisted back. He fought through his hesitation and twisted the knob

Opening the door caused cold air from outside to clash with the warm torches as they flickered from the change in the air current. The dim light barely reached a bed at the center of the room. Lying on the bed was scarcely clothed light lavender mare with a long brown mane screaming and twisting around. Blood was pouring out of her at a moderate rate. Nurses ran around left and right with towels trying to clean the blood as the head nurse stood by her head with a wet rag in her hand.

"Just keep pushing my queen," the head nurse urged her.

The King drew closer to the bed and the grip on his sword weakened. His free hand extended out and gripped the Queen's hand tightly. "Don't give up, soon you will be free of this curse."

The Queen turned her face to him with a weakly and seemingly doubtful smiled. She softened her screaming as best as she could and pulled him closer. "My love. Please don't be angry with-" The pain interrupted her and she cried out.

The King's eyes strained into near tears. "I'm not angry at you. I'm angry at the monster that defiled you with this curse." The tears finally broke from his eyes as his teeth gritted. "But don't fret, I will make things better."

The Queen's smiled turned to a frown as her eyes widened. She shoved him away as the final pushes broke forth. Her screams intensified as she struggled with all her might. The nurses backed away out of fear as the sound became more terrifying. The bed shook and the covers wrinkled. Blood fountained outward over the covers, quickly followed by ice that spread in every direction even over the Queen's flesh.

The King trembled at these sight as he arose from the bed. He gazed at the sword in his hand, his grip returning to full strength. His eyes rambled over to all the nurses as they stared at him. Seeing his face they gazed down and walked toward the exit without saying a single word.

Doubt poured over his paling completion as he turned back to his wife. He took a deep gulp of breath and gripped his sword tighter, lifting it above the bed.

The Queen weakly raised her hand to the sword. Her sight was now too blurry to see anything, but once she felt edges she gripped it and moved her mouth back and forth, speaking with a wordless voice.

The King's face broke down at the sight of this. His eyelids closed as he turned the tip downward. "I will avenge you."

He dropped the sword downward. The ice halted its advance over the bed. The Queen shivered as she reached for the King. Her hand pulled at his armor until her shivering stopped. The fires in the room went out and cold intensified. Silence filled with darkness as her hand fell to the bed.

Seconds passed like hours as the nurses stood outside of the room expecting an answer. They looked back and forth to each other mumbling unclear words. Ultimately one of them even reached over to the door. Yet, they quickly pulled back as a rageful roar tore through the door. They held their mouths as their feet carried them away.

The King's roar echoed through the castle and carried through to the outer wall. The General heard the roar of his king and turned away. His wife grabbed her mouth in horror. He pulled his wife close and placed his head on her's. "I'm sorry, I knew he would be forced to do it. It was needed if we were to win."

Quietness quickly followed, the winds and even the waves came to an abrupt halt. The two drew away at the sight of snowflakes falling around them. The wife looked to the sky and trembled at the sight of no clouds. "How? How are there snowflakes?"

"Snow and cold shall always follow in his wake. Be warned, for the first sign of him... is a snowflake." The General stared upward as he gripped his sword in its hilt.

"Soldiers, soldiers," one of the guards on the watchtower shouted. "He's here-" Instantly the soldier was stopped as the snowflakes swarmed around the watchtower. They moved like blades, cutting through the tower until it toppled to the ground. The soldiers scattered out of the way from the crash as it tore an opening in the outer wall.

General unsheathed out his sword. He swung it up high, shouting to the others around him "Stand your ground!" Hearing his words they shook free from the shock. He pointed his sword toward the opening and the soldiers charged toward it. He glanced back to his wife. "Stay safe."

"Come back alive," she reached out.

The General smiled at her words and faced forward. With his mind filled with vigor, he ran faster through the remains of the watchtower and jumped into the ocean outside. He slipped at first but quickly got his footing on the now frozen surface. He looked to see his soldiers already clashing with the monster and changed forward.

Many of the soldiers were already turning to ice in the claws of the monster as he tossed them to the ground. The monster stood strong and larger than any of them. The guards threw spears at him, they tore through his back and shoulders yet he refused to relent.

The General held his sword in front of his face waved it back and forth while chanting in a strange language. The sword glowed with his words. Once the brightness of the sword was too much he stopped his chant and swung. Sounds from the sword moved through the air cutting like a saw. The monster charged forward not stopping upon hearing the sound of the attack.

The attack hit head on, digging into the monster flesh and pushing him back to the ground. The monster rose back up as if the attack did nothing but annoy him. The General rushed forward and jumped into the air. He landed and dug his sword deep into the monster's back. The monster thrashed back and forth.

The General winced in pain as the monster's blood splattered over his arms. He wailed in agony as the blood began to freeze up his arms. "Bring it down!" Hearing his words every guard nearby jumped forward stabbing their own swords into the monster.

The monster's blood splattered over many of them freezing everything and holding him to the ground. The guards were willing to let themselves be frozen solid if it held the monster in place.

The General's wife ran over on top of the ruble as she heard his screams. "Fugue Dazzle!" She gazed at him as tears fell from her face.

The General glanced at her and smiled, chanting final words. "Vivat Rex!" He pulled with all his might. He ripped out his sword as it glowed a new color, tearing the monster's back wide open. Blood splattered over the entirety of the monster as well as the General. They were both frozen to the bone.

The General's wife gaped at the sight of this as the battle went silent. The remaining guards stood ready for anything while she rushed to the frozen block. One of the guards tried to stop her but another stood in that one's way. She came to a dead stop at the sight of it. She looked at her husband at the top. She reached out with her shivering hand and placed it gently on the cold surface.

Without warning, cracks appeared. The mare trembled and she backed away. However what happened next sent shock waves through them all.

"You took what was mine!" the monster spoke as the ice shook. "YOU TOOK WHAT WAS MINE!" Chunks of ice broke away as he pulled his body free. With one final twist, he broke free completely and jumped forward. He grabbed the mare in his jaws and fell into a roll.

The guards rushed forward. They tore their weapons into the monster, all of them aiming for his mouth. The monster arose and swung the mare around in his jaws. She wailed in agony as she pulled out of the sword hanging out of his body. She stabbed the sword under his eye, making him let go of her.

He dropped her to the ground and drew away. He reached for the sword, tearing it out. The guards ran over to the mare only to find her somehow unharmed. Two of them pulled her up and moved her to safety.

Meanwhile, the monster took the sword and beat it against the ground as he twisted and shivered. "You took everything that was mine. Now give them back to me!"

"I'm sorry, they're dead." the King stepped out of the castle, his sword at the ready covered in maroon-colored blood. "But with their blood, I shall finally smite you, monster!" He held the sword toward the monster.

The monster smelled the blood coming from the sword. His eyes widened, "NO!" He roared

The King smiled and held the sword up high, "Do you worse?"

The monster jumped forward. The King jumped to the side, dodging and rushing forward slashing his sword across the monster's chest. He rolled out of the way as the claw swiped at him. He stopped his rolling and jumped backward. His sword sliced into the monster's arm, cutting the limb completely off as he landed back in front of the castle. The king smiled at the sight of no ice forming on his sword. Turning around and stormed outward again, aiming for the heart. This time though the monster grabbed him and threw him back into the castle.

The King crashed through several walls before landing with a hard thud. He pushed at the ground, ignoring the blood pouring from his mouth. Holding his sword in the position he roared back as the monster charged into the castle.

The monster bit his teeth into the king's arm as the sword tore through his mouth. The force of the movement pushed them deeper into the castle, making much of it crumble around them. The monster stopped and lifted the King into the air, before tossing him to the side. The monster spat up some blood. He shifted away from the King and ran down a hallway.

The King slowly arose. He found his arm completely broken and blood was pouring out of his side at a fast rate. His eyes widened at the sight of a long piece of wood that was now skewing through his stomach. It was too long to remove, so he left it and stood his ground as the castle crumbled around him. He knew where the monster had gone to. He looked to his guards as they watched from the outside. He gritted his teeth and shouted to the nearest subject, "Burn the castle. I will not let the monster leave." Hearing his words, they regrettable did as he asked. He smiled as the fires quickly covered everything in sight. He spat up some blood and stared toward the hallway that the monster left through. He took the sword into his free hand and pushed forward.

The deeper he went in, the greater the fires got. Soon the only thing that could be seen of him was the fires of his rage and snowflakes of the monster.

* * *

"When the rumble was clear, only two beyond burnt bodies were found." The old white stallion took a breath as he grabbed at his warm tea. He took it up and sipped slowly before peering down at the filly that was holding his leg the whole time.

He rubbed her head and then looked to another pony who was sitting in the chair in across from him. The other pony was a rather old unicorn with a long beard,"It was believed that the bodies belonged to the King and the Monster he fought."

"That was a fine story, but are you sure they were wrong about what they found." The bearded unicorn inched his chin, pulling slowly at each hair.

The white stallion's eyes narrowed. "I know what I saw. That monster killed my ancestor Fugue Dazzle and my kingdom's last King. That vicious creature, massive deer horns and a taste for the flesh of others. It was the same monster I saw three nights ago-" He stopped as coughing filled his voice.

"Fine," The bearded unicorn looked to the picture of three fillies on his hand. "So do you want revenge or…" His eyes fell on the filly by the white stallion's leg. It was very much one of the fillies in the picture.

"Look all I want you to do is save my granddaughters from that monster before he does to them what he did to our once beautiful Queen." He stopped and glanced to his left. The grip of a young filly made him more concerned than ever.

The filly had not spoken a word during the whole story, yet the emotions about her sisters being taken spoke volumes louder than any word ever could speak.

The bearded unicorn stood up and took a bow. "I understand. I will do what I can, old friend." He turned toward the door to take his leave when he was stopped by the next words of the white stallion.

"Wait, please take her with you." The white stallion pointed to the little one. "She is no longer safe here either."

The bearded unicorn turned and frowned sadly. "She would only be in the way..."

"Yes, but she cares for her sisters greatly. She is the only heart they have left right now. Beside..." Harder coughs stopped his words.

"Don't push yourself, Grandpa." The filly gripped tighter to the white stallion's leg.

"I'm not long for this world." He pushed the filly away from his leg. "Starswirl I trust you... more than any other creature in this world."

"I... I understand old friend." Starswirl walked back over and placed his hand on the filly's shoulder lightly pulling her away.

"I... I..." The filly was practically in tears now. "I'll find my sisters, Grandpa, just you wait."

The white stallion smiled at her words. "Thank you."

Starswirl walked the filly outside several steps before reaching a small dock. Standing at the edge of the docks was a golden earth pony. "Let's go Fredricson."

"Oh, we have a guest coming with. Well, what's one more going to hurt?" Fredricson followed behind them. "Though is it true, has he truly returned?"

"It seems so. We must get this message to the alicorns immediately. Indigo Frost… has returned." The two walked over to an airship as smoke raised from its chimneys.

* * *

The place went almost silent after they left. The only thing that could be heard was the soft creaking of wood. The white stallion looked to his tea once more. It had grown cold rather fast. In fact, way too fast. His eyes widened and his body filled with trembles and… chills. His breath became visible and his eyes wandered over to a window nearby. His pupils shrank at the sight of…

"Snowflakes… snowflakes… " His voice slowed to a deathly halt and ice rose over his body from his feet to his face. Pushing with what strength he could muster his voice slowly pleaded, "I'm sorry… that… they… called… you… a… monster…" The ice completely covered him with that final word and the room's own cold became almost too painful to hear, see or even breath as cracking followed.

However, in this cold a smokey breath poured forth from the shadows of the room. Bare footsteps approached the white stallion's body. "Oh, but you did and always will call me by that name. It is what I am, and what we all are." An icy blue hand lowered to grab the teacup.

"The message has been given. That's two pieces down, seven more to pull in." The tea was brought to the smokey breath. The tea frost solid before being tipped over and the icy remained dropped into a mouth.

The sounds of crunching were followed by a new voice from behind the white stallion's frozen body. "Indeed and once all the pieces are on the board, their light shall be consumed by our darkness."


	2. Chapter 1: Time drifters

Little to no warning was given as the cold wind tore the warm evening air. It attacked the heat and shredded every piece and quickly swallowed it without any hesitation, leaving a blanket of graying darkness without end. Faint white crystals swept over every remaining warmth as they cowarded in place.

The snowflakes fell over a small ancient village on the outskirts of the Unicorn Providence to the north. The village had been around for many centuries and was a border place long before the unicorns claimed this land. It had strong stone structures lining the center like a circle and at the exact point a former altar that had long lost its use when living sacrifices became less descent during the last two millennia. A tall clock tower stood just behind it, it was relatively new compared to even the outer parts of the village. The outer parts of it were mostly wooden and more modern enough to be different from the stone structures but old enough work on them to have their own age to them.

The snowflakes drifted back and forth to sounds of blades clashing as they flew over the area in the westernmost part of the village. Finally, they landed around a brown spider as he watched a battle from atop a wooden warehouse. He shivered and knocked off the snow before crawling closer to get a better view. The two mares fought in a small pasture of uneven grass between the warehouse and the back of an old tavern.

On one side a lavender alicorn mare with a purple eye and blue eyepatch slightly covered by a spiked up navy blue mane, who wore bits of unevenly sparse armor. The armor's style was more like a knight. Under it, she wore a long sleeve light blue shirt and a purple skirt with a pair of light blue leggings and a pair of purple tall shoes with bits of armor on them. She wielded two kopises, the blades of the kopises were a bold blue and the handles were purple.

On the other side was a light purple unicorn with light blue eyes and a long purple and turquoise mane with the front parted to one side. She wore a bit more even armor but still sparse. Her armor was more eastern like in style. Under it she wore a thin purple jacket and teal long sleeve shirt and gray torn jeans with a pair of short purple steel toe shoes. She wielded a single gentleman sword with a purple blade and a teal handle.

The unicorn struck from above, the alicorn swung her left kopis up to meet the attack then went in for a stab with her other kopis. The unicorn jumped into the air and flipped over the alicorn. However the alicorn tried to grab the unicorn with her wings, but the unicorn saw this and lit her horn up, this pushed the wings to the side allowing the unicorn to land behind the alicorn.

As the unicorn landed she crouched and quickly swung her leg around knocking the alicorn off her feet. The unicorn followed this by jumping and spinning around to face her opponent as the alicorn did the same, and aimed her gentleman sword toward the alicorn's throat.

She stopped her attack just centimeters from the skin. The two looked at each other for a moment as the snow that had been kicked up from the grass by them settled to the ground. A momentary silence fell over both of them as they didn't move a muscle. It was so quiet that the only thing they could hear was the snow hitting the ground.

"Looks like I finally won. Huh, teacher," the unicorn boastfulness finally broke the silence.

"Not quite my young student." The teacher's single working eye looked down.

The student followed her eyes and saw that both of the Teacher's kopises were in the perfect position to cut her in half. She frowned slightly upon seeing this while sucking in her gut tightly.

However moments later they retracted their weapons and began laughing. The brown spider wiped his head of sweat and knocked more snow around before leaving.

As they finished laughing an old gold earth pony with apple red eyes and a braided slightly graying red mane in an old gray thick dress, white stockings and old brown boots walked with her ivory cane swinging about as she carried something. "Twilight, Starlight enough for now. You two are too darn good at that fancy shmancy swordplay."

Starlight and Twilight got up and dusted themselves off as they look toward the old mare, "Hello Granny Apple," they greeted her as she walked up to them.

"That should be enough training for today. We need to get the place ready before the evening rush arrives." She handed Twilight a cloak.

Twilight unhooked her armor and pulled in her wings tightly. She took the cloak and wrapped it around her wings, tying a thin rope around her gut. Once she was finished they walked into the tavern.

The two entered through the door and ducked there heads a little so as to not hit the stuffed deer head above them. They walked over and set their armor aside in the backroom then went to fix the place up.

The tavern was three stories of thick brown oak with a tough silver wolf's head standing over the outside of the front door and a metal golden lion's head standing over outside of the back door.

It was called the Wolf's Apple and was a cider and eating stop for workers and travelers as they entered into the Unicorn Providence. Ponies and other creatures would stop here for a drink and some food and despite the place being in the outskirts, it would occasionally get plenty of customers.

Starlight went into the kitchen to cook while Twilight took a wash rag in her magic and moved it across every table and Granny Apple walked over to a sink full of dishes. As they were working Twilight jumped at the sound of bell ringing with the opening of the front door.

A tall light green young stallion with rusted silver eyes, a medium length shining silver mane with a few cracked ends in a brown trench coat and red tunic with dark silver slacks and shined silver toe boots walked into the tavern carrying a newspaper. "Hey, mom I'm sorry for picking up the evening edition, but you have to see the crazy stuff happening in it." He set aside his coat on the hanger.

Granny Apple walked up while wiping a cup in her hand, "Let me see Silver Pear." She put the cup down and took the paper. "Hmm, our Princess Platinum is fighting with the alicorns again, wendigoes and changelings are on the rise and there has been another sighting of the mysterious faker prince. This isn't crazy, this is the usual stuff."

"No not that. Check the final page." Silver Pear walked over and bowed slightly to Twilight. Twilight rolled her eyes at his gesture.

"Fine," Granny Apple flipped and began reading. Quickly her left eyebrow raised. "Moving sculptures, that's impossible."

"I know right?" Silver Pear laughed as he walked over into the kitchen. The kitchen was filled with an incredible aroma of boiled carrots and freshly chopped celery. He knew the smell well but he was after a more… plump prize. Getting as close to Starlight before being noticed he reached out to grab...

"You know Twilight can't stand it when ponies bow to her." Starlight smiled and Silver Pear hesitated.

"What can I say? I love to knit pick, right, Lovely?" Silver Pear grinned bigger as he continued his advance.

She frowned in annoyance to the nickname he had for her. Yet just before he could claim his prize she shoved a spoonful of boiling hot liquid right into his mouth. "Flirt with me all you want. Just don't even think about grabbing my ass."

Silver Pear fell backward in pain but kept his eyes on that rear of her's. He ran over and poured out some cold water into a cup and began gulping.

Once his tongue had cooled off he walked back over slowly humming with his eyes closed. "You could at least try to give this lone stallion some attention back." He reached out, however, he quickly fell to the ground. He opened his eyes and looked up in confusion only to find that Starlight was gone.

He got up and looked around. She was nowhere in sight, but the stove fire had been put out. "She must have teleported away from me again. Will I even get another chance to touch that soft and… and..." He hummed with delight and turned to the food before sneaking out another spoonful into his mouth, only for it to burn again.

* * *

As Twilight got done setting the tables a noise by the counter perked her ears. She turned to see Starlight set up the drinks, "I thought you were handling cooking this evening."

"Well, Teach, I got done and thought I would head out here to help you."

Twilight smiled and walked over beside her to help. "You know, you can't keep turning him down without a reason."

"Really, this coming from the mare who keeps turning down any stallion who makes a move on her. Besides, it's not like I'm the only mare he flirts with?" Starlight waved the cup in her hand through the air in slight distress.

"Yes, but you are the only one who gives him plenty of fight?" Twilight laughed, "Stallion like him prefer a challenge best."

"Of really, then why doesn't he go after you then?" Starlight glared at her.

Twilight winced her eyes in laughter, "Oh yeah right? You know very well I don't fit his… taste." She tossed her own glare back at her.

"Puh," Starlight dropped her bravado. "Fine, but then comes the next question?"

"And what is that?"

"We from the future, what if he's related to me?"

Twilight laughed even harder, "Oh come on. You know the legends state that your relatives would have either dark or light magic in them. Silver Pear and Granny Apple don't use either. That's why I knew we could trust them."

"Hmm, I guess you're right." Starlight placed down the empty cup and took a drink of water from a full cup.

"Besides Applejack and Pinkie Pie once dated and they are related."

Starlight spat her drink on that sentence, "What?!"

"Well, it was only once. And truth be told, it was way before they found out they were related. Plus the date didn't go any further than the dinner table."

Starlight grabbed a towel and cleaned up the mess she made. "Well, what happened?"

"Applejack broke it off when Pinkie Pie ordered a two-foot tall cake and three pies for them to eat. She simply could not afford such a dinner."

"Maybe I should make Silver Pear pay for a two-foot tall cake and three pies as well," Starlight snickered.

"Yeah…" Twilight's laughter simmered down, "Look there should be no problem with the relationship between to distant family members as long as the line isn't direct."

"Direct, hmm." Starlight gave a clever grin. "Is that why you keep turning down every stallion?"

"Waitwhat?" Twilight's face went red and she dropped the stuff her hand and jumped at her words.

"Oh come on I was there too when Realta told you that your previous incarnation's father lived in this timeline."

Twilight's face now went a distinct pale. "No, no, no it's not like that at all. I know his name so all I have to do is stay away from anypony with that name."

"To avoid time paradoxes, right?"

"Of course, a meeting or…" She gulped heavily, "a relationship with such a direct family member could remove me from existence."

"Hmm fine." Starlight dropped her grin but laughed on the inside to the sight of her teacher's face. "Though that still doesn't answer why you won't date stallions or even mares for that matter?"

"Wait a minute." Twilight's eyes narrowed tightly, "When did this turn into an interrogation of me over you."

Starlight gave a cheeky grin to her teacher. Eventually, though Twilight dropped her look and busted into laughter as well. The student quickly followed her teacher's example.

Outside the snowflakes on the window loosened up. Out of the flurry flew a distinctly lone snowflake. This lone snowflake flew very separate from the others and even had a different color, red as the color of blood. It moved onto and above the road as a glowing hue covering it. Without warning it flew upward into the sky.

* * *

The red snowflake tore through the winds and floated on higher up into the sky as the Sun sat on the edge of the Cerberus Plains, a dark blue grassy patch of land that covered in more much much small building or should be said remains of the building. Ruins so old that it could barely be seen from that height. Ruins of an ancient kingdom long forgotten.

The red snowflake drifted higher and through the upper atmosphere and into a far-off land away from the ruins and village. It passed over more villages that seem to lightly pepper the plains with more ruins between them; a young world just trying it best to prosper. Finally, it arrived outside of the Cerberus Plains and came upon a more rocky and volcanic environment.

The ice within the red snowflake got heavier as the heat rose up from below. The red snowflake started to melt as it fell into a massive caldera. Deep within this rather stable caldera was a city, a city made of gemstones.

The city shined with hues of red and purple with pitches of green and black. Fire sprayed over many openings along the buildings. Ponies with fiery like manes walked through the flames with little care in the world. The still glowing now red raindrop fell through the sky, catching the attention of a few onlookers. They thought it was rather strange for a drop of rain to make it's way all the way in there. In this city so far from much if any forms of normal water; only more acidic liquids could survive such a place.

They watched it as it floated across the winds until it finally landed on a castle of pure white gypsum with a massive immaculate colored window as well as several smaller windows that surrounded its tallest point. The colored window showed a black alicorn mare with massive wings and a purple mane flowing around her like a massive fire.

The red raindrop acted very strange as it seemed to sink into the wall of the castle. It crept through the microscopic cracks to find its way inside. Once inside it fell onto a fine clean plated floor in a splash. There it stayed still for a moment until…

A black high heel stepped down and barely missed it. The heel belonged to a fiery green stallion who wore very mare like clothing. He walked around a beautiful rose pink dining room with dark red fire covered spikes peppering the walls and a stainless tungsten table in the center with a random amount of charcoal colored chairs around it.

As he walked, he traced his hand over every chair until he found a mare and another stallion that were tied to chairs facing away from each other.

The tied up mare was a seafoam green unicorn with light blue eyes and a short green mane in a brown hooded cloak with a light blue tunic and blue slacks over a pair of black old fashioned overshoes.

The stallion was a greyish brown batpony with bold green eyes and a spiky black mane in a white top hat and a reverse white and black ballroom suit with bright white dress shoes.

The seafoam green unicorn seemed rather annoyed as she scowled in all direction, while the batpony had an almost clueless look to him. The batpony looked a lot younger than the unicorn, though she didn't seem that old herself, late twenties at best, while he looked like he had just gotten out of high school.

The fiery green stallion walked around them twice before stopping in front of the unicorn's chair and grabbing the end of it tightly. He leaned over the unicorn's body and sniffed her face taking any scent of perfume with great taste. The seafoam green unicorn pulled away and twisted more in her bindings.

"Okay, this isn't going according to plan," the seafoam green unicorn leaned her head back to the greyish brown batpony.

"Very true. But at least, we got a meeting with the legendary Sanity Dutchess Claymore," the greyish brown batpony spoke with a very french accent and played up his words to perfection.

Sanity turned his head sideways and looked over to the brown batpony while the seafoam green unicorn's eyes wandered across the walls. Sanity reached around and pinched at the greyish brown batpony's cheek, making him pull away as it burned. "So this cutie knows who I am?"

"Of course... milady, who hasn't heard of the famed queen of drugs hiding under the ifrit's thumb. Though I feel sorry for you if you feel like that… the beautiful face should ever be hidden."

"Oh, don't be too flattering." Sanity pulled away from the greyish brown batpony and leaned away from the seafoam green unicorn. He pulled tightly at the mare's mane, making her grit her teeth. "Unfortunately the same can't be said about you." Sanity smiled and pulled tighter as he slowly moved away from the chairs. "And who said I was hiding. The ifrits have long forgiven me and my curious ways. The best thing about my species is their longevity and their forgivingness." Finally, he let go of the hair as the pain brought out a single tear from the mare's eye. Sanity pulled back his hand and let loose a wicked smile. "Give them enough time and they will forgive anything."

The seafoam green unicorn pulled her face down as the tear dropped to the fine plated floor. She hid her face with her mane as she looked around the room once more. Back and forth until she saw the entirety; in particular the shadows, before finally looking back at her captor. The mare gave a teeth-gritting smile and spoke, "Even the fact that you are currently working for the deadly Indigo Fros-"

"Oh no, oh no, that be wrong little mare." a crooked seeming repetitive voice interrupted the unicorn. Both the greyish brown batpony and seafoam green unicorn turned toward the voice and their eyes widened. "He is Lord Frost to you mortal ponies," spoke a short black earth pony stallion covered in bleach white stitches with copper red eyes and bright blue clown-like mane in a black clown costume with green buttons, blue frills, and big blue shoes. He rode over to them on an almost demonic looking black and silver unicycle.

The seafoam green unicorn's face fell and her eyes went back to work. Meanwhile, the greyish brown batpony spoke up as he turned his face sideways. "Seriously, now we meet the disgusting Carnival Carnage."

"Complements, compliments for the drag queen, but none for me." He snickered, "You will call me Carny. And who are you two?" Carnival rode over in front of them and looked them over extremely closely, more so than Sanity had already. He was so close that they could smell the bad breath.

"Mon Grand Etalon, batpony frenchman," Mon tried giving his best bow while tied up.

Carnival seemed to ignore him and raised his hand up to the seafoam green unicorn's face. He pulled her to face him as he moved in so close that their faces were almost touching. He smiled so largely that his large very unkempt dark green teeth and blackish rotting gums could be seen as clear as day. "And what is your name, beautiful?"

The seafoam green unicorn veered back as best as she could until she saw something sparkle in a shadow on the other side of the room. She let a smile slip out as she spoke, "Who am I? I'm going to be your worst nightmare if you don't back off."

"Oh wow, oh wow. Was that a threat?"

"No, it was more of a demand." On that, the seafoam green unicorn smashed her head into his. Using the force of pushback she knocked the chairs sideways toward the ground.

Suddenly silver chains flowed out of the shadows and flew across the room. Sanity turned toward the chains and jumped over them, while Carnival being too slow found himself being wrapped up tossed to the wall.

"What is this? What is this?" Carnival struggled

The seafoam green unicorn smiled as a pair of charcoal colored hands reached out of the shadows around her and Mon. The hands undid the binds and vanished back into the shadows. The two got up and looked toward Sanity. "Our backup just got here, so there's no escape."

Sanity smiled, "What backup? You are a unicorn. Do you think this is my first time dealing with a telekinetic?"

"Really? But Clover is terrible at telekinetic magic," spoke a voice from seemingly nowhere.

Sanity span around, "Who are you? Where are you?"

"Who am I? That is a good question," the voice continued as every shadow in the room moved on their own. The shadows swarmed to a center point. All of the shadows collided and every light source in the room went out.

Chains shot out of the center point and anchored themselves around everything and shadowy figure grew out from the center as all the light source returned and the chains unanchored and flew around him.

Sanity and Carnival trembled at the sight of a tall thin charcoal stallion covered in many blue arabian style cloths and scarves wrapped around his upper body, broad shoulders and arms as well as around his neck and forehead. His face, short unkempt navy blue mane and the abs along his thin belly were the only things exposed. Below he wore wide long white trousers with the bottoms tucked in his black stringless shoes, along with many silver chains wrapped around his whole form, especially over his arms.

Sanity's face covered with sweat as he backed away as charcoal stallion looked to him. "It can't be, Rex Moba, the alicorn's warlock knight!" He raised his hands upward and flames shot up from the ground around Rex and engulfed him.

The fires span around like a tornado as it reached the very top of the ceiling. Sanity smiled as things around the tornado began to melt from the heat. After several moments the tornado depressurized; revealing a ball of silver chains over the spot where Rex stood. The chains pulled away to show Rex still standing unharmed.

Sanity's eyes laid wide open as he backtracked even more. He looked around in all directions. Her eyes loosened their wideness as they spotted a vent. He smiled at Carnival and jumped far back, "Sorry, Carny, alicorn justice is far less forgiving than ifrit justice." Fire shot out of her back like wings and she took to the ceiling. He looked toward the opening of the vent and flew over to it.

Rex shot a few of his chains at her but she escaped. He gritted his teeth and turned toward Clover and Mon. "Mon, Clover, she got aw-"

"YOU'RE LATE!" Clover slapped Rex across the face. "You do realize that Carnival could have easily raped me while you were taking your sweet time getting here."

Rex pulled his face forward as he retracted his stance. "Well, I'm sorry. Do you realize how hard it was to place all of those shadows in such a fiery place?"

"And why would you need to place so many?" Clover took a step forward.

"Fear is a good tactic in battle. Now that drag queen is running scared." Rex leaned in.

"So you willingly let him escape, huh?" Clover smirked at him as he retracted again.

"What…. I mean… Fine, I guess I could have moved faster." Rex raised his hand up to his face and leaned his head into it. "I'm sorry."

This time Clover's own face retracted and her mane fell over her eyes, "Just be better next time."

"Are you two done with your banter, yet?" Chuckles from Mon broke their thoughts.

Mon held his hands up to the dark glare, moving them back and forth as he backtracked and turned toward where Carnival was being held. Mon's eyes widened, "Mlady… Sir?"

"What?" they both answered in unison. Their eyes widened too on what they saw. While the lower half of Carnival was still chained up, the upper half was flat out gone.

Clover walked over to the chains, "How the buck did he do that?" She reached with her fist and punched the body. It fell from the chains yet no blood flowed forth. "The body is an empty shell. There aren't even organs in this."

Rex frowned as he pulled back his chains. "Hmm, the reports don't mention Carnival as any form of undead." He raised his hand into the air as a shadow stretched out to Clover and Mon. "He may simply have all his important organs stuffed into a certain part of the body while leaving the rest of him hollow." His eyes glowed and weapons floated out of the shadows by Clover and Mon. Clover took hold of her bow staff, while Mon took up his cutlass.

Clover gripped her staff tightly. "Well, with his legs here, he couldn't get that far. We can handle it from here. How about you capture the one you let escape."

Rex gave a begrudging grin. "Okay, just remember we need them alive."

"Said the stallion who killed our last target," Mon chimed in.

"Fine." On that, Rex fell into his own shadow and vanished.

* * *

Sanity flew through the vents until she found her way outside. Feel the warm winds on his back he smiled. It quickly faded as he felt the cold grip on the chains ripping him straight down. He winced in pain from the hard thud as he rolled across the roof of the highest part of the castle. Pulling himself free of the chains he managed to stop his rolling and jumped to his feet. Swinging back and forth looking for the source of the chains he found nothing but an empty void.

"Where are you-" Pain under his chin stopped his words as he was tossed upward by a fist while Rex landed just beyond him.

Rex raised his arms outward and his chains pulled back around his arms. Once the chains were back in place, he folded his arms over and slowly walked to Sanity. "I suggest you give up. Though we want your leader Indigo, the Order of One would want to meet you and your sister."

Sanity frowned at the idea, "I see that you have done your homework, Vanity and I left that life behind long ago when I found being a drug lord pay so much better. Besides Indigo is not the kind of being to turn against." He threw his hands outward and flame whips shot out from them.

"Really? Is he that terrifying?"

"He's a monster with no bounds or chains to hold him down." Sanity charged at him with a few swings only for Rex to spin jump in the air and slide just between them. "He would sooner feast on my liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti rather than let me betray him."

"Fine, have it your way." Rex landed and shot his chains outward and wrapped them tightly around Sanity's arms, making the flame whips go out. He pulled on the chains knocking him down where his face hit the ground.

Sanity ignored the blood pouring over his face and stood back up laughing. "We have been talking about my past and what Indigo really is, but what about you? Some call you the last kind shadow, while others call you a murderous shade. So which is the real you?"

Rex's face fell, "It's a little bit of both."

Sanity glared with a smile and heated up the chains wrapped around his arms. Once the heat became too much to bare even for an ifrit he charged right at Rex.

Rex gave no reaction to his chains melting away. However, he did duck under Sanity's attack and threw him over his shoulder.

Sanity clawed at Rex's head as he flew over yet still no reaction. He gritted his teeth on landing on the other edge of the roof. The movement knocked over a small rock. Bouncing off the edge of the roof and then off the edges of the colored window below and fell toward the ground the rock shattered like glass.

Sanity pushed himself up but found himself constantly losing balance. "What's happening you barely threw me?"

"Fear, that's what happened." Rex pointed toward Sanity's shaking legs. "You see while you thought you could scare me with the mentioning of my past, I was really setting my strings tightly over your legs." His hands raised up and the diming sunlight shined over every the string that stretched from his shadow to Sanity's legs.

Sanity's eyes widened at numbness of his legs. He tried to straighten his footing, but his legs continued to fall out from under him. "But how? I thought your only weapon was-"

"You thought wrong." Rex charged right at him.

Sanity fought through the pain just enough to throw some more flames, unfortunately, these ones were much smaller. Rex went through the flames as over the building's edge. As he fell, he pulled on the strings tied to Sanity's legs.

Sanity gritted in pain as he shot flames over his legs and burned off the strings. Rex felt the gripped of his strings vanished and he continued to fall.

Sanity turned around and blew a fiery kiss at Rex as he watched him. "Bye, bye-" He stopped at the bold smile on Rex's face.

Rex waited until the very last second and then shot chains off his arms in high speed. The chains shot straight upward and stabbed right through Sanity's shoulders. Sanity coughed hard as they dug through and tied around his back.

Rex used the leverage to land softly on the ground. Once on the ground, he yanked hard. Sanity screamed had held himself into place.

"No, you don't-"

Rex pulled back harder, knocking Sanity near over the edge.

Sanity gritted his teeth and filled his hands with fire. He placed them over the wounds; burning the wounds shut. Afterward, he moved his hands over the chains, grabbing tightly. He smiled as the feeling in her legs began to return.

"My turn." Sanity pulled at the chains and ran the other direction.

Rex's eyes swelled as he felt Sanity's pull yank him back up.

Unfortunately, Sanity was so distracted and his legs were more damaged than he realized. He didn't see or even feel which direction he was even going, as before he could even stop himself, he toppled over the other side.

As Rex landed on the roof, Sanity swung through a small window into the floor below as the chains ripped out of his shoulders. He finally realized what was going on and tried to stabilize his flying. He ended up crashing through another window, this time, the giant one with the alicorn on it. Rex jumped around and reached outward to grab Sanity with his chains.

Sanity knocked them away, still not fully seeing where he was still flying to. The ifrit winced when his back the wall of another building, knocking his flaming wings out. Unable to control his flying he fell right downward, smacking right into the ground.

Rex pulled back and raised his hand up to his face. He retracted it as he felt that the wrapping around his head was gone. He quickly looked around but stopped as he heard ifrits walking around and shouting. He turned back around only to gritted to see that the ifrits had saw the crash.

The ifrits walked around looking over Sanity's mangled body. All of them whispering back and forth to each other the closer they. A large one in what seemed to be a police uniform walked over to Sanity. He placed his hand over the neck before pulling it away and clenching his hand into a fist. "Who did this?"

"Up there." One of the ifrits pointed. "He did it."

The large one looked up to Rex and his eyes widened. "A glowing curved horn?" His hand raised up and pointed to the blue horn on Rex's head that had been hidden under the cloth. "He's an umbrum. He's a murderous shade."

Rex pulled back upon the large ones words. He looked to the other ifrits as anger grew in their eyes. His face could only flinch erratically at them before pulling back completely and turned away. He stepped off the edge and walked faster than his feet could take him. He stopped as he saw Clover, holding the cloth that was usually used to hide his horn. Her face was lowered.

She handed it to him with a sad smile, "You dropped this."

He stared at before picking it up and wrapping it back over his head. "Thank you." He tied the knot up tightly. "We need to go, where is Carnival?"

"We didn't find him. But we found something worse," she turned around to lead him when she was stopped by something that hit her nose.

"What wrong?" he questioned.

"I don't know." she raised her hand to her nose. "Did I just feel… rain?"

"Impossible, this city is built inside a caldera. Maybe it was just ash." He walked over in front of her and scanned her over. His eyes stopped on her face and on an ice droplet that tipped her nose. "Wait, that isn't rain… that's-"

He was cut off as they both saw a snowflake fall between them and hit the ground before evaporating in the heat of the city. Rex quickly viewed the sky and his eyes stretched upon seeing several snowflakes falling over the fiery city. He walked over to the edge and looked more over the city. Snowflakes were quickly covering everything.

"Snow and cold shall always follow in his wake. Be warned, for the first sign of him is a snowflake."

Rex backed away from the edge very slowly. His face was pale as could be. Clover grabbed his hand, but she winced as it was ice cold. "What is it? What is causing this?"

Rex gripped her hand tightly as he tried to pull the cold away. "It's just as the legend say… He's here." The two ran out of their as fast as they could.

* * *

Down below in the room, the red raindrop glowed even brighter. Eventually, the echoes of footsteps filled the room. Voices barked back and forth, followed by the sounds of an opening. The red raindrop jolted and twisted, rising up into the air. The raindrop got colder and colder until it returned to it's red snowflake form while flying through the air.

Soon it flew passed a charcoal arm and into a brand new pathway. The arm vanished from sight and a wall replaced it. A jolt of wind hit the red snowflake again, knocking it to the ground. There it laid for several seconds until...

* * *

Author Notes: Sorry this was so late, I've had a trying week. I hope you all liked it. Also, don't forget to comment at that always helps. Next chapter should be posted here around August 15th.


	3. Chapter 2: Fire and Frost

Evening's dusking light tore over the Wolf's Apple followed be a rush of ponies going through the doors. Starlight twisted back and forth through the crowding ponies passing out trays. Her eyes wandered through the sweat to Twilight. She frowned at her teacher having way less trouble navigating especially since Twilight was reading a book at the same time. "How does she do that with no depth perception?" She caught her words before nearly slipping over a few more drunk ponies and landed her last tray on a table covered in several empty glasses. She took a breath, "Damn vultures," she brushed the sweat off her forehead and grabbed the two glasses off her tray, "Here you go Rainbow Dartz."

"Thanks, Starlight," the rainbow colored mane dark blue pegasus stallion quickly grabbed the first glass and rushed it to his face.

Starlight rolled her eyes as he finished the first one [b]very[/b] quickly. "I knew I should have brought just one over."

"Hey, ... Don't be like that. I hold my liquor a lot better then these drunks can." He leaned back and forth twirling his dark blue toga in his seat.

"Let's hope so, or I may have to call Red Steel on you." Starlight grabbed the empty glasses and placed them on her free tray and walked away from the table only to be nearly knocked over by a green flash of movement. Luckily she jumped out of the way of the green blur as it passed by. Unluckily though her own actions threw the glasses on her tray into the air. As her eyes filled with shock, the green blur flew through the air, grabbed all the glasses and placed them all back on the tray.

"Oh, I'm so so sorry, Starlight. I need to pay attention to where I am going or I may cause the accidental death of more unfortunate glasses. Anyway, I want one cider and three hotdogs. No, wait, make that three hotdogs and two ciders. No, wait, one hotdog and one cider. No, wait, one cider, an apple and two hotdog," spoke a voice from seemingly nowhere as the green blur vanished from sight.

Starlight puff some air to knocked her mane out of her eyes as they followed the green blur across the place. "No problem Hermes."

The bell above the door rang again catching Starlight's attention. Starlight held out pretty smile to hopefully hide the returning sweat on her forehead from the sight of much more merit of creatures walking. Backtracking she made her way to the kitchen. Once she was back in the kitchen her smile instantly turned into a frown upon the sight of Silver Pear cooking.

She turned to Granny Apple and handed her the glasses before turning back to Silver Pear and puffing loudly, "Why am I out there?" Silver Pear's reaction was purely to turn and hum at her annoyance. She quickly dropped her huffs and walked over to the counter.

"What's wrong? You can be so lovel-" Silver Pear was stopped as she stuffed a pork whiney into his mouth, to which he spat out in disgust. "Besides, Twilight is out there with you."

"Yeah, but I was supposed to be cooking today. Stress is not my friend, despite what that teacher of mine thinks."

"Hey, you left your post to dodge me, so I had to take over."

"Fine." Starlight finished making Hermes' order. "Oh and make some food for Rainbow Dartz, I think he is going to drink himself under… again."

"Sure," Suddenly he stopped and turned toward her, "Oh if you're going back out there, Red Steel's food is done and so is Lighttone's." He handed her two other trays. One was a small meal and the other was a large meal.

"No problem," Starlight sighed slightly and grabbed them in her magic and walked to the door. She looked back at Silver Pear and saw him giving her a thumbs up, "Look I'm sorry for my attitude. It just I had everything planned for the next few days."

"Next- Few days!" Silver Pear jumped slightly, "Don't worry. I'll have everything ready instead." Silver Pear turned around and smiled brightly.

"What?! I was supposed to arrange everything up." Starlight leisurely walked back over. She placed her arm just beyond his back, making him blush.

"Don't worry, I can handle it. Besides, you are better at distracting that teacher of your's then I am." He began to lean into Starlight sultry.

Instantly she teleported back to the door. "Nice try, but I wasn't being sultry. I'm annoyed, there is a difference."

"You are a mean one, Lovely." He waved his spoon at her.

A thin red hue flashed on her face at his words, "Enough with that nickname, we have work to do."

Starlight turned back toward the door and walked out. She scanned around for only a moment and spotted the one she was after. She walked over to a table and put down two trays. "Here you are Hermes and Red Steel."

The tall wall of muscle steel colored buffalo bull with red horns dusted off his native style clothes and turned to the food and gave little if any look to the dry grass sandwich. He picked the meal and took a few bites before finally giving a tentative nod.

"Hmm, still no words today huh, Red Steel." Starlight smiled and tried to keep one eye on Twilight. The buffalo lifted one of his eyebrows and went back to eating. However, he stopped as one of his ears lifted up. He scooted away from Starlight leaving her confused until she heard what he was hearing as clear as day.

Jumping back Starlight barely dodged a green blur ran past her and stop mere centimeters from the table.

A white and green griffon in nothing but a speedo and biker gear appeared from the green blur as it vanished. He looked left and right before sitting down. "Oh, this is a perfect spot for me. Just the right temperature and humidity and placement. Plus the chairs are at the perfect height here. Tell me Starlight, how did you know that I would choose the exact spot in space and time for my spot? Temperature, humidity or placement?"

Starlight's eye twitched and a crooked smile formed as she looked at him. However, all that vanished upon seeing Hermes' kind eyes. Starlight took a breath and calmed herself into a proper smile, "But of course, how could I forget? You… you always sit here."

"Really? Are you a future seer? A time traveler? Or maybe you are a chupacabra?"

"A chupac-what now?" Starlight veered her head back as confusion poured over her and then looked toward Red Steel. Unfortunately, he had a more confused looked to Hermes's words than her. Though he knew exactly what to do as he placed his hand on Hermes's shoulder. Hermes looked to Red Steel and began talking a storm to him instead.

Starlight gave a sigh of relief and silently spoke a thank you as she walked off. "He can handle him just fine. Besides Hermes speaks enough for both of them anyway."

She looked to her final tray and leaned her nose upward. Soon she caught the smell of cigar smoke and crude mechanical oil. She followed it to the end of the bar, knowing very well who the smell belonged to.

"There you are Lighttone." She walked over to a table and placed down the large tray in front of a gray lion with yellow eyes and light purple and dark green mane that was clearly too long under a navy blue cowboy hat with oversized steampunk clothing in a merit of random colors that seemed to blend in quite despite the strangely large amount.

With his metal hand, he took ahold of the ballon looking meal taking a big whiff. "Medium rare giraffe liver stuffed with goat meat seasoned with bacon and garlic. Smell as good as always." He smiled with his fearsome jaws before taking a bite.

Starlight tried her best not to pull back in revulsion as she saw every piece shredded in his mighty jaws. Once the meat went down his throat, she let go of the breath she had been holding the entire time. Lighttone gave a thumbs up and she turned away.

She was about to walk away when he started to speak up, "Chupacabra? I haven't heard the word since the Chimichanga Inquisition, nearly three thousand and ten years ago, last month. Funny enough their meat has a much stronger goat taste than this though this wasn't at all a surprise considering what they ate."

"What?" Starlight turned around upon his word as he continued to talk. She looked around and noticed Twilight was handling things just fine as the crowds were growing down. She walked back over sat down as she knew a story was coming up. "Tell me more."

"Okay, but first, what be this little thing you are in such a rush for?"

Starlight raised her eyebrow to that comment. "Really? Did you forget what happened a two years ago just a few days from now?" Her face fell back at his 'I don't know' reaction. "Seriously how do you remember all of these old stories yet don't remember the here and now." She turned away from him more annoyed.

"Maybe I don't need to remember when you two are here to remind me."

Starlight's eyes widened at those words as she turned back around. "You sneaky ass. You do remember?"

"I didn't lie you just assumed." Lighttone raised the meat up to his mouth and took another bite.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Starlight's face fell slightly.

Lighttone placed down his meat and watch Starlight's sad face. "Maybe it more of you blaming yourself for what happened to Twilight rather than being in a rush."

"I don't know, though maybe I'm worried about my teacher's attitude toward the event more than anything," Starlight's face raised and her eyes fell upon Twilight, in particular, Twilight's eyepatch.

"Don't worry, I know she will like what you have planned." Lighttone placed his metal hand on Starlight shoulder.

Starlight smiled at the cold touch. "Thanks, you old cook." She turned and gave him a hug. Suddenly the sound of glass smashing broke the hug.

"Starlight, clean up," spoke Granny Apple.

"Sorry," apologized Hermes.

Starlight stood back up and grabbed her face to cover the grin. "I got to go." She walked away from the table. "Oh, I want to hear more about that story later."

"Don't worry, you will. I've got all the time in the world for stories." He leaned back and popped his neck. He looked around to quieting noise as the crowds thinned to its weakest point. He laughed and turned back to Starlight as she cleaned up the mess on the other side of the tavern. "Hmm, she is a good friend. And she has good friends around her," He noted to the embarrassment on Hermes' face.

He looked down to his meal and rubbed at his stomach. "I'll get another bite in a second." He picked up his cigar and took another puff and turned toward the window. He watched the snowfall on the other side of it. "You know, I haven't seen snow like this since..." He turned once he remembered that nopony was there to hear his words. He exhaled heavily and continued with his words, "Not since an old friend was still alive."

* * *

Miles away in the far-off land of the ifrits, the very same snow fell in quick succession. It gobbled up every flame without any hesitation move more like a swarm rather than a storm. Ifrits ran around either filled with fear or rage. Fear for the snows around them and rage toward the murder in the castle.

"It's snowing? How?" Mon questioned. He placed his hand on the window. pain tore through his hand and he pulled back. "What?" He looked to see ice particles forming on the tips of his hand. "Impossible. It can't be that cold here."

His ears lifted at the sounds of footsteps. They increased in sound the closer he got to the door. He tightened his grip on his cutlass. The door flew open and he loosened his grip at the sight of Rex and Clover walking in.

"We have to be ready when he gets in. What is it you wanted to show me?" Rex questioned.

"This way." Clover held her hand out to one of the walls as Mon walked over to it. Rex raised an eyebrow as he walked over to what looked like a simple wall. However, as he got close it quickly became apparent that this wall was very different from the others as this one had the faint image of a symbol of a goat head.

The three stopped at the wall. Rex lifted his hand up. The symbol became more visible the closer he brought his hand to it. "I see, it one of his symbols." He took a breath and placed his hand upon it. He felt something burn on his upper sternum and the wall began to vanish. It revealed a new room. The room's walls and floors were covered in gray glass and there was a purple agate stone in the center of the room, standing on a pedestal.

"Like I thought. A dark magic wall." Clover placed her hand on Rex's hand and pulled it away as the wall reappeared. The burning on Rex's upper sternum vanished with the new room. "Sanity and Carnival must have been hiding out in this castle trying to figure out how to break into this room."

Rex placed his hand back on the wall as it vanished again. "I'll have to hold open the path then."

Clover placed her hand on Rex right on the spot of the burning and felt of the metal object hidden under the cloth. "Are you he will care enough to hear you this time?"

"Let's hope so," Rex tried to assure them. "Just get inside. We need to confirm that alicorn's intel."

Clover slowly retracted her hand and turned toward the opening. "Okay, come on Mon." Mon followed after her as the two enter the room.

The closer they got the colder the room seem to get. It was strange, the cold was not like cold of the snow, more like cold of… darkness. Clover reached out her hand as they got halfway. "Hold here, there might be a trap."

"Okay," Mon held up his cutlass.

Clover shallowed her breath and slowly moved closer. At a certain range, it became clear that there was an inscription on the pedestal. "Here lies the faith of Cassandra. She puts her trust in the fires to protect this stone. May her waves not be forgotten." she smiled rather forwardly. "Goldy was right, it is one of the Alathar."

Suddenly the purple agate began to glow brightly at the word Alathar. A female voice spoke, "The one without fear, step forward."

"You two might want to hurry." Rex felt an uneasiness pour over him. Behind him, something started to move.

"Okay," Clover took in a deep breath to calmed herself. "No fear, huh. Luckily I'm always around Rex." She reached over slowly and pulled the stone free from the pedestal. "Okay, I have it."

"Good -"

Instantly Rex was stopped as a black metal pipe hit him right in the sternum. The force of the attack knocked him far from the wall. The wall slowly appeared as the glowing red snowflake barely made its way into the secret room.

Rex crashed into another wall and coughed hard. "Damn it, that hurt."

"Did it? Did it? Had you been any other creature, I guarantee it would have killed you." Carnival rode over as he swung the pipe left and right. "I am really good at anatomy."

"Well, hello again. Want so badly to join your friend. And what do you mean by anatom-" Rex tried to get up, but he found that his arms had no strength. "What the?"

"Our Lord Frost, oh our Great Lord Frost. As reasonless as he may seem to some he chose each of his followers for a purpose." Carnival stopped right in front of Rex. "Outside of my priestly duties is my knowledge in anatomy, particularly bone structure. I may not have killed you, but I had stunted the connection between your shoulders and your brain." He raised his pipe above Rex. "They will be out for a few hours." He dropped the pipe hard on Rex's back.

"Damn it, the reports-" Rex's body wracked in pain as his teeth gritted. As another hit went down Rex quickly looked over his arms. He smiled at the sight of the twitching fingers. "The former circus runner who spends his free time-"

"Preaching beating and raping, raping, beating and preaching. Yes, yes, I may not be the purest priest out there, but mostly due to the god I follow." Carnival dropped the pipe down harder. "You are stubborn." He lifted his pipe high. "I guess that makes sense, I've beaten nearly every species with my words, my pipe, and even my rod, but you are my first umbrum."

Seeing his chance, Rex flipped his fingers upward and looped what remained of his strings over the unicycle. "I really hope you satisfied yourself enough?" Pulling, he ripped the unicycle out from under Carnival.

"Ouch, Ouch." Carnival rolled across the ground. As soon as he fell over a shadow, Rex's eyes glowed. Chains shot out of the shadow and stabbed Carnival's arm to another wall.

"Good, now to Clover and Mon," Rex glanced to the dark magic wall and pulled out chains around it. The chains swung around and held together in the form of a hand. "You are not going to like this move at all." He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth while shooting dark magic through the chains. The dark magic hit the wall and the opening reappeared. "You two better move, I don't how long I can make him hold this."

There was no answer. In fact, it was deathly quiet. Not a single sound came out of the room. Rex's eyes widened through his sweat and his fingers forced themselves into a fist. "Answer me you two. Can you hear me?"

"Oh, they can hear you just fine, well to be more accurate one of them still can, the other I'm not quite so sure about."

Rex's face went completely pale at that voice. A voice so smooth and calm almost sincere in tone that it couldn't belong to either of them. [i]There was nopony else in the room, nothing else…. but the... but the snowflake.[/i] Rex's breath dropped as sweat dripped from his cheeks straight to the ground splashing and quickly evaporating on impact. "Indigo… Frost."

"That is truly better, I am most glad that I haven't been forgotten in all these wonderfully dank years."

"You can shapeshift into snowflakes."

"Oh, not quite, but you are on a certain track. I expect that much cleverness from another like myself. Though the same couldn't be said for your allies."

Rex's muscles tensed and he tried to pick himself up again. He was just a few feet from the opening. But in his position, the opening might as well have been miles away. "Clover? Mon?"

"Do you doubt me? As I said before one is perfectly fine, the exquisite mare has not a single wound on her. Unfortunately, this strong stallion is not so perfectly fine," Indigo Frost pushed the tips of his claws deeper into Mon's back. Ice from the tips was digging even deeper into Mon's flesh then Indigo Frost's own fingers.

Clover kept her eyes tightly on the icy blue figure hiding behind Mon. She couldn't see a face or a body for they were hidden behind a cobalt cloak covered in stitches and a deer skull mask. All that she could decern was his height that dwarfed Mon and herself and the distinct seemingly endless cold air that flowed out from him. All she could do was hold tightly onto the stone and tried to think of a way to pull Mon free from the icy grip.

"Now don't get any quizzical ideas, little filly?" Indigo Frost reached out of his stitched covered cobalt cloak with his other hand. This hand's strange pale white color seemed to clash with the icy blue fur of his other arm. "All I want is the Alathar, nothing more. It means... so much to me. Give me the gem, and I will give this sweet and kind colt a merciful death."

"No…" Mon barely rasped with an icy cold breath "I... already down."

"No," Clover pleaded, "What about Fredricson?"

"Don't worry, that old horse... can keep going... without me." Mon attempted to smile, despite tears falling from his face. Each tear turned to ice as they fell to the ground, shattering on impact. His complexion was getting paler by the second.

Clover's eyes fell, she looked away from them as thoughts of escaping filled her head. The room quickly filled with an icy cold silence before Clover's eyes finally went back up. She looked at Mon, his face was now completely pale white and his movement was very slow, yet it looked like he was looking at something. Following his eyes downward she saw his shadow.

Her eyes loosened, "Fine, you win." She lifted up her hand and threw the gem toward them.

Indigo Frost reached out, however, chains shot out of the shadow and grabbed it first. Seeing the shine of the purple agate vanish in the shadow, his eyes narrowed and his voice dropped, "Do you even know what those precious objects are?"

"So.., You are after the… rest as well? Huh?" Mon let loose a chuckle as his arms fell and the rest of his body began to stiffen.

Clover's eyes went wide and she jumped forward without thinking to grab Mon away from Indigo Frost. But without warning, ice shot out of the ground blocking her.

"Poor little filly, so far, yet so close. Did you really think I would be that distracted?" Indigo Frost snapped his fingers and the ice became translucent. His eyes narrowed and his mask covered face leaned over Mon's shoulder. "But it seems you were too slow anyway."

Both Rex's and Clover's eyes widened at those words. A toothy smile tore through Indigo Frost's mask as his sight wandered over to the eyes of Mon. Without warming, small ice sheets tore through the irises. The flesh of the eyes fell to the ground and shatter into gooey pieces. Mon's body stopped completely. With a twist of Indigo Frost's hand, a loud cracking filled the air

Clover's jaw slowly dropped as Mon's flesh sagged and waned. Rickles formed over every part of it until ultimately, the flesh fell off like a glove. All that remained was the muscle and skeletal structure covered completely in ice and a massive crack that flowed from one side all the way back to Indigo Frost's hand as his pushed deeper and deeper.

"Oh, you didn't realize that I had been filling his insides with endless cold?" Indigo Frost turned to Rex, "Did you hear that? I just gave the most useful hint to how my incredible powers work." He returned his sight to Clover and basked in her fear. He opened his jaw wide and let his fangs hang outward. Dropping down his dug his teeth deep into the collar of Mon. The massive crack boom loudly once more but this time small cracks webbing out from it and the area around the spot he was bitting down on. Meanwhile, the spot itself was filling with a dark color. Indigo Frost stabbing his tongue through the spot and lapped up every inky and viscous drop of the slush as it rivered into his mouth. Once he had his fill of the blood slushy he pulled his tongue and bit down completely ripping the spot out of place.

The mini cracks spread faster and faster as the whole body eventually fell to pieces. Each chunk fell into the shadow only leave the heart behind safely in the very icy blue claw that had been ripping through the back the whole time. The heart stayed completely warm despite the remaining icy chunks that laid around its holder.

Indigo Frost's ears lifted at the sounds of more shattering coming from the shadow where the other pieces of frozen muscles and bones had fallen into, "Oh, it's a two-way path isn't it?" He lifted his foot and stomped on the shadow loudly and nothing happened. He turned back to Rex, "That's not playing fair at all. Please be more considerate to your allies next time." Indigo Frost returned his sight one final time to Clover and dropped down to pick up the flesh of Mon, keeping his sapphire eyes on her the whole time even while rising back up to toss the flesh over his shoulder. "I guess I'll take this lovely fine pelt as compensation. Meanwhile..."

The ice wall dropped as he walked toward Clover. With the wall gone, he could see the fear so much more clearly. It continued to grow greater on her face with each step. He took each step ever so slowly to savor the sight as long as possible. "Don't worry these things won't go to waste. I'm sure his flesh will make a fine blanket of even a luscious coat, a gift willing to my faithful followers. As for Mon's heart, that will provide so much more usefulness." He stopped just mere inches from her. Clover was too frozen in fear to even look at him directly, in fact, it was as if she hadn't moved at all. Indigo Frost dropped down to her height and placed the heart right against her cheek, next to her nose. "Don't disturb. Take whiff with your nose, you can perfectly smell every ounce of power within the lovely organ."

When still no reaction was given Indigo Frost frowned and jumped back. "How unfortunate? I thought you were worthy enough to stand by his side. But it's obvious that you are nothing compared to her."

Back in the main room thousands of white snowflakes tore through the small windows and swarmed around. After a moment they flew over to the opening and entered the smaller room. The snowflakes swarmed around Indigo Frost as he body glowed a certain prominent red hue that could be identified right away. As they got faster and faster he slowly faded among them. The swarm quickly left the small room with the heart and flesh in tow.

The white snowflakes stopped in front of Rex as he looked up to them with anger. "Where are you?" Rex questioned until he spotted red snowflakes among the swarm. "I... see. You don't shapeshift at all." Rex's voice dropped drastically as the pain got worse.

"Please be as careful as possible, you don't want to use all of his dark magic up," Indigo Forst's voice vibrated from the red snowflakes and seeming only the red snowflakes alone. "Since you removed the Wave of Nightmare, I have no reason to be here. I will take these and go look for the next Alathar. Despite our failure, let us leave with dignity, my faithful priest."

On that Carnival pulled at some of the strings in his arm. His arm fell partially apart allowing him to escape Rex's chains. He walked over to the red snowflakes as he restitched his arm back together. Carnival stopped just before entering as his eyes widened.

"How?" Carnival questioned as he pointed to Rex's moving body as it trembled up into a standing position. "His bones should beyond repair?"

"Don't be too alarmed. There is something you missed while attacking him." Some red snowflakes flew toward Rex, hitting around his sternum which now glowing maroon red. A chuckled spouted from the red snowflakes. "I see your amulet is as powerful as he said it was."

Knocking the scarf away revealed an amulet with a metal alicorn head with a knife like horn and huge wings that spread around and over the shoulders. A single gem in the center that shined maroon light outward. The entire amulet itself seemed embedded into the flash.

The red snowflakes concentrated in certain areas of the swarm to form eyes and a smile, "Look my most loyal priest, say hello to one of three sister alicorn amulets, otherwise know as the Dark Alicorn Amulet." The makeshift face tilted sideways. "I had my suspicions that Rex was its new owner."

"But how is he standing?"

"Because each of three sisters is referring to the three forms. Mind, Body, and Soul."

"I... see you know your knowledge." Rex held up his hand. The flesh almost seemed split yet not. "Priest, this amulet refers to the body and gives me the flesh of a hydra. You could call it a blessing from a true god."

Indigo Frost laughed uncontrollably, "You also have the weaknesses of a hydra too. Oh, Rex how deceitful of you. Here I am giving you hints to my own power and you throw in red herring to your power. Calling it a refine blessing when you above all being in this world would rather call it the worse possible curse. Besides providing hydra skin isn't the only thing it does." On that, the red snowflakes grabbed Carnival and flew out of the window.

Once they left, the room went incredibly quiet. The fires returned back to their full strength bringing back the much-needed warmth. Rex smiled before his body fell to the ground. He frowned at his body fighting him back so quickly. "Damn it force the regeneration too fast." He did find a slightly better mobility in his hands and lower parts of his arms. "Darn you, cursed amulet, when will you ever give me a warning next time when you give out?" Lightly slamming his hand on the ground to the best of his abilities to show anger. "It didn't matter in the end, he perfectly saw through my acting and my words. You are far from ever useful. Especailly since you are the only keeping me alive."

The glow dimmed rhythmically. Rex kept his eyes on the light and nodded his head to it. "I know the bluff was needed to get the answers I needed"

He glanced at the opening of the other as his chains shook and slowly faltered in place, "Now about saving Clover." His breathing decreased as the magic wained.

The glow dimmed rhythmically, this time more erratically.

"What are you saying? Of course she useful to us, at least far more than you are anyway." Rex stopped looking at the erratic glowing as it slowly faded away. "Hey, Clover, I can't hold it any longer. Get moving..." She didn't answer. She was still in shock of what just happened. Rex turned his sight to the hallway as the sounds of footstep echoed through them in quick succession. "Damn it, those ifrits are still mad. So much for the forgiving types."

Suddenly his chains fell and the wall reappeared. "Fine, hard way it is." Pushing at his hands he rolled himself to the nearest shadow and vanished. Soon he appeared in the sealed room. His rolling stopped upon Clover's legs."Damn, I didn't think combining your dark magic with my shadowmancy would actually get us in here."

Noticing that she didn't react to his words in any way he stared deeply into her face. Soon he saw the fear stuck in her eyes. "How is she still frozen in... " Instantly he stopped and looked toward the pedestal. "In fear? Of course, the damn test." Closing his eyes, he pulled on what magic he had left. The chains shot out slowly but made their mark in smashing the pedestal.

Clover's eyelids fell and she dropped into his arms once the test was broken. Rex held onto her tightly as glared back at the wall. He could hear voices on the other side. "Damn it, wake back up. I... could use your help." His eyes fell upon his sternum.

The maroon glow returned and the shadows around them grew to a great size. Soon they slipped right through and vanished.

* * *

Outside the red snowflakes flew around as they lowered to the ground. They stopped flying and swarmed in a circle once they found Sanity's body. "Hmm, don't be concerned. You are still very useful to me."

On that Carnival dropped down and picked up the body. "Upsy daisy, upsy daisy. I'm certain your sister might be very mad at that this happened" His eyes widened to the swarm. "But lord, what about the Alathar? Vanity would be even more ashamed that her brother's death happened during this failure."

"It's useless to them without the instructions. And even then they would need all of the Alathar to stop us." The eyes stared at the castle, seeing all the ifrits rip through it. "Besides this was far from a failure. I am now certain of his resolve."

"Who resolve?"

The eyes narrowed at the rage of the ifrits, "Rex's. When will he ever listen? He wants to try to protect them at every turn, just as the radiant mare wanted him to. Yet one day he will have to realize that these monsters don't need to be protected. They need to be saved." On that, the red snowflakes flew off with Carnival and Sanity in tow.

* * *

The evening light finally faded in the ifrit city. Voices and whispers spread like wildfire at the vanishing of Sanity's body. Many of them wanting answers that could not be given, while some simply wanted to not care anymore.

In a building on the outskirts of the city, a lone white ifrit in a blue suit and black tie was finishing paperwork. "I can't believe they want to have a meeting tomorrow. I'm far from ready." He struggled to hide his grumps. Despite his distance from today's events, the noise outside was getting louder by the second. "Darn it, why is everything in such a ruckus today?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but maybe they need to let off some steam."

"Yeah, right-" His voice stopped upon realizing the other voice was there. This was too strange since aside from him and some papers the room was completely empty. "Who's there? Answer me?"

"I was wondering when you were going to notice me."

The ifrit's eyes raced across the room, this time more clearly. He was certainly missing something. "Where are you?"

"Here."

The white ifrit fell out of his chair as the owner of the voice moved out from behind him. It looked like a rather old and wrinkly stallion with dark mold green flesh almost bare of fur. His clothing if it could be called that was so loose and old that it barely hanged from his body.

"Who are you? How did you get in here-" he stopped and grabbed his nose as the stink finally hit. The creature stank so badly that it nearly brought the irfit to tears.

"Who I am doesn't matter." The creature walked over to the center of the room. "What matter is that I'm here to bring you a message from Frost. A message that will be the final light on this evening's... darkness."

* * *

Author Notes: I hope you all enjoyed it, don't forget to comment or follow or whichever you deem to be the right idea. I would love to hear some reactions either way. Next month will be Chapter 3: A Dream Gate.


	4. Chapter 3: A Dream Gate

The sunlight shined through a window, tracing over some partially opened drawers, some leftover clothing, and books laying on the floor, quickly to a purple bed with dark lavender covers and soon over a lavender face. Twilight raised her face up ever so slowly at the light. Her horn lit up and the blinds closed... without any magic covering them. After which she laid back down and tried to return to sleep.

"Wake up, Twilight."

Twilight turned away from the voice, not even realizing the unfamiliarity of it. Her hand fell off the bed and onto the… the very fine flat and almost slick floor. Twilight eye shot open upon the cold touch of the surface that was void of any tears and even small indents that was very common among a wooden floor. She slowly emerged from her dark lavender blanket and looked around. To her shock, there were hues of purple crystals on every surface and wall, even on the floor. She raised her hand to her head and scratched it. Instantly she pulled her hand away at the feeling of her long hair.

"Are you going to hide in there all day?" the voice returned.

Twilight span around again looking for the owner of the voice, but saw nothing. The source couldn't even be identified, nor could she tell if the voice was from out of the room or right next to her. She jumped out of her bed and tried to get a hold of her bearings. She looked under her bed once she stopped wobbling. There was nothing under but books; such things that were all too common to her. However what did catch her eye was something else. She reached over to one of the books and pulled it out. She rubbed her fingers over every part of it. There was no wrinkles or smudges of dirt. This book looked too far new and even... modern.

She narrowed her sight and threw down the book, [i]'I might just be a little too tired.'[/i] Stretching her arms outward waiting for the satisfying pop. Swinging her arms about as she began to notice something strange as her sight hovered over her shoulders. "What? Not possible!" The eventual pop never came. She clutched at her shoulder and scanned at it intensely. Her vision moved over it incredibly fast, but not just because she was scanning it, but because she was in even more shock. "My scars... they're gone." Her fingers quickly raced over certain spots all over her body, her movement growing more and more frantic after checking each spot. "All of them... are gone."

Her movement stopped and her breathing became heavy. After a moment or two, she wrapped her arms around herself and fell back onto the bed. Small tears were forming in her sight and she could feel a grin grow in her cheeks. She twirled back and forth on the bed several times in joy as laughter started to consume her.

"Hold, on?" She questioned aloud as she jumped up. She reached her hand over her left eye. Lightly rubbing it to feel every single part as her smile slowly turned into a frown. Her cheerful tears faded and her other hand trembled uncontrollably. Slamming her other hand down multiple times and screaming, "Damn it! Damn it! Why is that one still there?!" Her teeth gritted and her fingers clenched down on the icy cold cobalt blue wound.

"Are you done yet?" The voice returned louder yet not a single word was spoken in anger.

"Who are you?" Twilight dropped her hand and scanned her sight back and forth through the room. She gritted her teeth at again the sight of nothing. "Where are you?!"

"Really? A better question is where are YOU?!"

Twilight's eye widened and she jumped out of the bed and finally ran to the door. Opening, she found multiple seemingly endless hallways beyond it. Concern grew on her face as she hesitantly took each step.

"I was right. I'm not in the tavern. Wait, am I in..." She turned to one of the hallways and went down it. Her movement gave a sense of familiarity as if she had been here before.

"Oh, finally. But you are only half right," the voice seemed to be annoyed. "He warned me your reaction would be like this. Just keep running and you will figure it out."

"What are you talking abou-" Without warning, Twilight crashed into a new door. She grabbed her head and rubbed it, "Ouch, what was that-" She stopped as she caught sight on the door. Her mouth fell ajar. "Wait, I've seen this door before."

"Wow, this Flash Sentry must be a pretty fine stallion to get a blush out of you." A new voice spoke from behind the door.

"Wait, that Starlight's voice?" Twilight's eyebrow raised as she stood up and reached for the door.

"Starlight, so I did see you. What are you doing here?"

Twilight was stopped again, this time for another reason altogether. "Wait, that's my voice…" Her hand trembled even move and her breathing became frantic. "No, no, not this." She covered her ears from hearing the rest. Yet the sounds of a portal opening on the other side filled her with great fear. Soon though everything went silent. Her breathing softened and she dropped to her knees and placed her head on the door as tears fell down her face. "Why? Why show me this? And? And not give me a way to stop it!"

Seemingly unbeknownst to Twilight, smoke moved through the hallway and slowly approached her. The closer it got, the more the color of the smoke got closer to a maroon red.

Twilight slowly released her ears and her fear withdrawn as she stood up, "Of course you can't change time, that's not your area." She turned to the distinct chill behind her. "Isn't that right you damn goat."

The smoke stopped at those words and wavered back and forth. "Sorry, but I'm only his messenger." On that, a hand shot out of the smoke and pushed her into the door. The smoke hardened into an almost solid-liquid figure of a maroon color.

She fought and twisted in the figure's grip. The figure was too blurry to see its face accurately. But one thing was very clear... it stank of blood.

"Enough of this." Twilight punched at it. Yet it's grip only tightened. "Who.. are you?" Her voice weakened as her throat squeezed.

"You have forgotten me, but I have never forgotten you." The figure pushed harder as the door behind Twilight slowly covered with cracks. With enough force, the door shattered, yet the pieces didn't fall, instead, they floated around Twilight and the figure as it walked her through the room.

She looked through the room, seeing her past-self follow the past Starlight frozen still falling through a swirling vortex of magic. It was just as she thought, this was a memory of how her journey started, so many years ago.

"Who are you?" Feeling the grip loosen slightly she questioned the figure once more.

"That does not matter. What does matter is this?" The figure stopped at the crystal table and punched her into it. She coughed hard as it crawled over the table, pulling her along until they reached the center. It stood above her and leaned downward. She twitched and squirmed around as it got closer. It put it's mouth by her ear and stopped moving. "The first of the Alathar has been found. You must find the one who has it, and take it before he discovers its true purpose."

Suddenly the figure's hand twitched and pulse as flesh folded over itself. In fact, all of its flesh was folding downward over Twilight, almost like it was melting. It moved like ooze over her and descended to the table below her. The ooze spread over the table and over the chairs. Leaving a thick overly bony laughing skeleton in its wake.

The room swayed left and right as everything around her followed the flesh. The table was melting, the chairs were melting and even the walls were melting into a maroon red liquid. The room was quickly filled with it. Twilight twisted back and forth as the ooze built up around her.

She was now sinking into the liquid. Feeling it reach over her face, she closed her eye and took in a deep breath. She fell below into the ooze as the room seem to vanish around her. She sank in lower and lower until a small voice broke through it all.

"Twilight… time… to… get… up."

* * *

Twilight jumped up and knocked the brown covers off. As her breathing calmed her sight scanned quickly over the room. Old style books and clothes litter the wooden floor. She gave a sigh of relief and leaned back down. She rubbed her head as Silver Pear opened the door.

"Wake up, sleeping beauty."

Ahh!" Twilight gave a light yell and grabbed her cover to hid herself once she remembered that she was only wearing a nightgown. "Why didn't you knock?"

"But, I did knock, buzzkill. Come on, I know the rules." Silver Pear winked at her and handed over an apple. "Here my Lovely said to bring you some breakfast."

"Where is Starlight then?" Twilight took the apple in her magic and placed it beside the bed.

"She is waiting for you outside in the back." Silver Pear turned away and walked toward the door. He stopped, "Oh yeah, I can still see your rear."

Twilight's face went bright red and she pulled the cover over every part of her she could reach. Laughing at her reaction Silver Pear quickly took his leave.

The door shut softly. Twilight stared at the door for several seconds. Her heated face quickly vanished, being replaced by a cold sweat as her sight retraced the room once more. She looked at the books again and the clothes and especially the wooden floor. Taking a deep breath she moved the covers and dropped her bare feet onto the floor. She felt over every prick and even splinter of the wood until she was sure, "Hmm, maybe it was just a dream." Finally, she turned to the apple. "Thanks, Starlight." A short smile crept onto her face as she grabbed it. She brought it to her face but stopped.

The light from outside shined the reflection of the apple into her sight. Her vision narrowed on the display of the cobalt blue scar over her left eyelid. Her smile dropped and her teeth gritted. She attempted to open her left eyelid but stopped as the amount of movement brought nothing but extreme pain.

She placed the apple down and looked toward her closet. Getting up she stretched her limbs out and smiled at the popping sounds that followed. Meanwhile, a voice flew through her head, this voice was very different from the one in the dream, in fact, it was far nicer. "Yeah, I know the five creeds first." She straightened her body and grabbed a cloth with her magic. She wrapped the cloth tightly around her chest to ensure restrictive movement. Next, she grabbed a few books with her magic and brought them over, opening them and flipped to marked areas. "First, Pinkie Pie, 50 jumping-jacks." She proceeded to do just that while reading. Once finished another voice flew by her head, this one far more loyal, "Second, Rainbow Dash, 50 push-ups." She dropped down to the ground for push-ups while continuing to read. Finishing that exercise a different voice flew by, this one far more kind. "Third, Fluttershy, 50 pilates." Rolling on her back to do those she hardly lost any grip on her books. once finished with that another voice followed, this one was far more honest "Forth, Applejack, 50 squats." She jumped up to her feet.

A smile grew on her face as she really got into one of the books she was reading. "Wow, Dr. H. P. Bloodcraft can certainly make some compelling scientific research on telepath-"

A new voice passed through her mind stopped her words. She realized she had already finished the correct amount of squats a while ago and was now just wasting time. The same voice bugged her once again, though the voice repeated itself it was still filled with so much generosity "Fine..." Putting down the books down for a single moment she took a grumbled filled breath. "Fifth, Rarity, shower, followed by... above average... I mean... beautification," She mumbled the last word as her magic grabbed some clothes and her dark blue eyepatch. "And, no Spike I am not doing seven hours of it!"

She removed her gown and unveiled many scars over her body. Each one was a varying age and size. In particular, the oldest was the scar over her throat which looked a lot like an old rope burn only far sharper, the biggest were two massive gashes along her stomach and reappearing on her back and the newest one was the scar over her eye.

The sounds of running water were followed by the door to the bathroom opening and then closing seconds later. The blanket rumbled around for a moment before a certain brown spider crawled out and over to the stand where the apple was. It stopped at the sight of the apple and stared... at the claw marks that tore all over the surface. The brown spider crawled closer and touched the apple before pulling back in pain. It looked at its leg and glared at the ice particles on it.

* * *

Outside the tavern, the Sun continued to move its light over the village. Ponies were strolling through the roads, cleaning up the snow as they went about their daily lives. The Wolf's Apple was very quiet and had nopony in to drink today. In the back, Starlight was walking back and forth, almost creating a rut in the ground.

"What is wrong deary?" Granny Apple rocked back and forth in her chair as she moved the cloth over a double barrel rifle in an almost mirroring of Starlight's movements.

"Oh, nothing much Granny. I'm just hoping to get all the work done today and tomorrow before the big day arrives." Starlight stopped and looked toward the old mare.

"I'm sure she'll like it."

"But what if she doesn't. What if that teacher of mine is still mad about it all? What if?" Starlight began to stutter her words as she waved her hands about. "What if… she still hates me for all of this?"

Granny Apple stopped cleaning and got up from her chair. She walked over and placed her hand on Starlight's shoulder. "You are far too young to worry about some many things." She moved her hand to Starlight's mane. "You'll get grey hairs at this rate."

"Oh come on, you know the time traveling has stopped mine and her ability to age properly."

"Yes, I do, just as much as I'm sure she forgave you long ago."

Starlight's face tilted down. "Hmm, I hope you're right?"

"Right about what?"

Starlight's face jumped up upon hearing Twilight's voice. She turned to Twilight with a fake smile. "Nothing Twilight, I just wanted your help with some grocery shopping today?"

"Hmm, why can't Granny Apple or Silver go with you?" Twilight moved her book out of the way so she could see Starlight.

"Because I and he are going hunting today." Granny Apple turned to Twilight and held her gun over her shoulder.

"Oh did Lighttone ask for a specialty order again?"

"Nope," Silver Pear walked over passed Twilight and Starlight, "But a certain pony did and we can't let them down."

"Okay?" Twilight raised her eyebrow. "I'm guessing that I'm helping my student today-"

"Great," Starlight pulled on Twilight's arm dragging her off.

As the four went their separate ways the brown spider crawled out from Twilight's window and watched them all leave. It crawled up to the roof on the tavern and looked out to the front. It breathed slowly and looked over the ponies on the roads.

"Hmm, what is Starlight up to on this lovely Sunday?" A voice came from the spider as it stared at the two mares. "Really Starlight should calm down, Twilight needs to worry about other things."

* * *

In the far north, commotion tore through the silence of a crystal plaza surrounded by glorious alicorn statues. Ponies scrambled around at the sounds of footsteps. The sources of the echoes were Clover and Rex. Many of the ponies whispered back and forth at the sight of Rex's bloody hands. He closed his eyes and kept walking. Meanwhile, Clover looked to them all with a glaring force that made a lot of stallions tremble. The ponies quieted down as Rex and Clover slowly exited the plaza, heading toward the great emerald covered cathedral.

Rex stopped at the entrance and observed his bloody hands. The hands trembled as he stared between them and a fountain of flowing water by the door.

Clover looked at his hands and placed her own hand on his shoulder. "You didn't have to clean up the remains. I'm the one who failed him..."

Air pushed out of his nostrils, "No... I had to, I am just as much responsible for Mon's death." He walked over to the fountain. He placed his hand into the cold water and pulled some out, wiping it over his other hand. He scrubbed as hard as he could, but the images of the icy chunks still dripped through his mind. "Damn it..." He stopped and looked away from Clover as she stepped in.

Eventually, he stopped scrubbing and pulled his hands away from the water. He shifted to the door and opened it. Inside were beautiful turquoise walls taped with a merit of white tapestry. The ceiling had many white and gold chandeliers with an almost eerie seafoam green glow to the flames of lighted candles upon them. The ground was covered in a green colored carpet with many rows of long brigandine chairs. A meret of species were sitting or kneeling near the chairs and praying in silence.

Rex walked passed many including Clover who was now praying. Soon he came by a line up of the confessionals that surrounded a statue of a giant centipede. He scanned over all of them until he came upon a gold lined one in the center of the lineup. He peered around it and then frowned at the sight of a crystal white mane and a tail floating out of one side.

He hesitated for a second before walking into the opening on the other side. He sat down in the chair and exhale heavily again before finally spoke, "Forgive me, Holy Mare, for I have sin-"

"Yes, I know. You are very good at that:" the priestess spoke in a surprisingly eloquent tone from the other side. The panel covered with silver magic and opened, revealing the priestess to be a yellow alicorn mare in a platinum robe. "Plus you have terrible cleaning habits."

Rex looked at his palms and he winced. He dropped his hands and wiped them on his many scarves, "I'm sorry, but these aren't from the damn enemy!"

The alicorn grabbed Rex's mouth shut in her magic. "First you destroy Cassandra's window and now you curse in here. Blasphemy to our great God."

Rex glared at her, but then let go of the glare and turned his head sideways pulling free from the magical grip, "That damn centipede..." He stopped his voice before finishing. "I'm sorry... besides it was Sanity that did the shattering."

The alicorn put her hand up to her head. "Sometimes I wonder if you should be sent on for more time in Tartarus."

Rex smirked as he brought his head back to normal levels, "Maybe that would rather nice."

The alicorn let loose a small giggle and glared at him. "Do not be mistaken. Your results are unquestionable, but your methods leave a lot of anger in your wake."

Rex huffed and threw his hands around, "Well, I'm sorry, that I'm not as perfect as the great Holy Mare Topaz Silk Shining Tower Chardina. A mare who is so god-like that she has to send a lowly devil like me to go do her dirty work."

The alicorn's grin twitched and she kept her eyes forward as a small frown broke through her flawless face. "Fine, I'm sorry about Mon. I thought for sure Golden Williams intel was good."

Rex raised his hand upward. One of his chains followed and slowly flowed around his hand with the help of his dark blue magic as he remained silent upon the memories of yesterday's events. The scenes of him being forced to gather up the remains and transport flowed through his mind. Once the scene ended he grabbed the chain in his hand. "Do you think I like being the most hated creature in the entire Crystal Empire? Topaz Silk... why can't you and the rest of the Alicorn Order just do something about this?"

Topaz Silk turned to finally face him and dropped her frown to keep her original smile. "We can't Rex. Most of the alicorn race are very hesitant about you and your kind."

"Maybe if your brother hadn't off…" Rex's raised voiced quickly dropped as he realized he was squeezing the chain far too tight. Releasing his grip he calmed his breathing until the chain slipped out of his hand before finally finishing. "I mean..." He turned his face away. "Speaking of the order where are those nieces and nephews of your's?" he questioned in an attempt to change the subject.

Topaz Silk raised her hand to her chin, "Hmm, Celestia is meeting with the hippogriffs, apparently the youngest princess there has gotten a shine to her, I think the filly's name is Novo."

"She always likes helping children."

"She often does. I sometimes think her calling would be a teacher if she never had a life of a princess. Luna meanwhile is meeting with the Yaks again. It seems that she wants another attempt at a peace treaty with them. She also asked about you again."

Rex's eyes strained, "Of course she did. Princess Luna always seems like she wants to tell me something but she never does. I often find it quite odd."

"Golden Williams in the southwest, his searching for the buffalos' homeland continues to bring up no leads. And finally Blood Diamond is currently heading to Zebrica, something about beating his father's record. "

"Okay, I'm assuming that old rival of mine is with Blood Diamond."

"No, it's the time of Cold Blue's month-long annual break."

"Hmm, right?" You would think knowing a siren for more than two thousand years would make it easier to predict when he takes these breaks." Rex crossed his legs and scratched the fuzz on his own chin lightly. "Well, I guess we have to keep this mission going without their help."

"Speaking of the mission, what did you find out about Indigo Frost."

"Well, I don't think he is who he claims to be." Rex leaned back and waited. He soon felt a burn on his neck as a dim glow shined. He grabbed the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "For one thing he couldn't seem to recall that the real Indigo Frost was the last owner of this magical trinket."

"But..." Topaz Silk posed as her hand dropped while a notepad and an inked feather floated up with her magic.

"But when I tried playing a few bluffs he saw right through them."

"So he's not it's original owner yet he knows of its powers." Topaz Silk waved the inked feather around before writing done some notes.

"Not all the powers..." Rex dropped the Dark Alicorn Amulet back down to his chest. "Let me rephrase, I don't think he knows all of its abilities." His eyebrow raised. "Hmm, he did mention that somepony had told him some things."

"Hmp, this creature is a curious thing. Are we sure he is even a wendigo? If we assume that he is lying about being the former king of wendigoes then what if he is also lying about being a wendigo as well."

Rex's eyes flared up. "Whoever he claims to be, one thing is for sure, he is a wendigo. No other beast could manipulate ice like them." Rex's eyes widened and he stood up.

"What is it?" Topaz Silk straightened herself and stopped writing.

Rex whispered some words before walking out, "We need to talk somewhere more private." He looked at the back backdoor. Clover stopped her praying as the two made their way to the door. She got up and walked over to them.

A short tan earth pony colt with a brown mane ran passed Clover and toward the alicorn. "Holy Mare, Holy Mare. Bless the Lord and his goodness."

Topaz Silk stopped and padded the child on the head, "No, child, bless your joyous kindness for he is always with you."

Clover walked over to Rex as Topaz Silk talked to the child more. She stood by Rex's shoulder and looked at the child as he ran through his words without much thought. She turned her face to Rex and moved her hand toward his hand.

Rex pulled his hand away from her inadvertently. He reached over and pulled the alicorn away from her work.

Feeling the hand slip away from her, Clover's eyes fell timidly and blinked twice. She stood straight and tapped her feet while waiting for Rex to get done.

"Enough, we have work to do. You can talk to the child later." Rex pulled at Topaz Silk's shoulder harder.

Topaz Silk ignored him and kept to her holy duties, telling the child all that was needed until the child calmly walked off. She watched the child quickly get back to his parents. She waved at them as they went to a spot and sat down. "Such a nice child. He will make a fine follower."

"Right, lead him straight into that beast's slau-" Rex stopped his words and dropped his arm. He looked back to see Clover tugging on one of his scarves. "I mean, we need to get back… back to work." His fist tightened.

A slight twitch twisted in Topaz Silk's pure form, but with a deep breath she calmed herself into a smile and turned around, "I told you before manners are everything." She looked to the giant centipede statue before walking to the backdoor "We must always keep the appearance of a peaceful belief."

"Fine..." Rex tried his best to keep his eyes from ever looking at the giant centipede statue as he walked. Clover meanwhile spoke words under her breath while keeping one eye on the statue.

The three went through the back door and entered a small hallway with two paths. One led to the back exit, the other led to a dead end with a picture on it. Topaz Silk walked down the other hallway to the dead end and the others followed slowly behind her.

"I see you fix the passage, Holy Mare." Clover scanned over the wall.

"Why thank you, dear." Topaz Silk tipped her head as she stopped at a picture of a giant gem. "I had to make sure no random pony found the place. And even if they did, without my magic and only my magic they could never enter." She placed her hand over the picture and the gem in the picture glowed brightly, a symbol on her hand followed. The glow revealed a centipede symbol on both the picture and her hand. The hallway shook and twisted around, revealing a new opening.

* * *

Back in the village, ponies walked around and explored through the thinning remaining snow under the glorious afternoon Sun. Starlight practically was pulling Twilight around to many different shops as they gathered up supplies. Twilight didn't mind all of this walking and she was still able to get plenty of reading done, it just that the boxes were…

"Starlight don't we have enough already." Twilight twisted the boxes around the laughter of a few fillies.

Starlight turned around to her with more boxes. She stopped and moved her head upward tracing over the height of the current amount in Twilight's magical grasp. "Sorry, is it too much for you?"

"Not really... it's just getting a little hard to keep up with my book."

"Really? How many times are you going to read that book?"

"Oh come on, Dr. H. P. Bloodcraft is the only good writer of this time. Besides the only other thing, I brought to read are history books from our time."

"You mean future books. But wouldn't that be dangerous." Starlight couldn't but wink at her.

"Yeah, I know, but I like comparing facts too."

Starlight raised an eyebrow to those words. "Fine, give me some of them. I could make it my training for today."

Twilight pulsed some magic around and moved a few of the boxes over to her student. "You are not getting off that easily-" However, Starlight didn't catch them in time and they slipped from her magic.

"Wow, look out." A red magic aura grasped the boxes before they fell onto Twilight's left side. The magic belonged to a dark lavender unicorn stallion of thin build with winter blue eyes and a crimson red mane sliding on one side wearing an unkempt white dress shirt, pants, and loose green bowtie. He had rushed over at the sight of the fall.

Starlight stepped to one side watched as he slipped into the snow. Both she and Twilight stopped to stare at the thin stallion for a second. Starlight let loose a little laughed, "Sorry Twilight. I guess I shouldn't have been standing in your blind spot."

"No, it's okay Starlight, I should have been pay attention more." Twilight put one hand on her left eye and rubbed it while dropping her other hand down to help the thin stallion. "You okay, Crimson?"

"Yes… Yes." the stallion stood up and smiled while giving the boxes to Starlight. "Here."

"Oh Crimson C Magic, what are you doing here?" Starlight raised her hands to her face as if she had a delayed reaction.

"Well, it wasn't like I was stalking… I mean I just happen to walk behind you… I mean, walking the same direction… I mean," he corrected himself multiple times in quick succession.

"It's okay, hey you mind staying here with my teacher while I go drop these off."

"Sure" He straightened himself.

"Him…" Twilight turned to Starlight with confusion only to find that she had vanished with all the boxes.

* * *

The sounds of Starlight reappearance filled the tavern as she placed the boxes down. She lifted her nose to the air and took in the smells of lemons and pine. There was also a minor smell of purple grapes in the air as well, but this was distinctly different from the smell of everything else.

Granny Apple walked back from the kitchen just as the wave of wind from the teleport exited the building, knocking her mane around in the process. "Well. I have Twilight's favorite snack cleaned up and sitting in the back. I assume the plan went perfectly?" She pulled the net out of her mane and over by the sink.

Starlight was quick to walk over to a chair and sit down, "It went perfectly. Though he could have shown up a little faster."

"Crimson is a nice stallion, but he is often too shy to do such reckless things." Granny Apple emptied the sink and turned to the cabinets behind it.

"Well, hope he can keep him calm enough to distract her. Though that teacher of mine has made it very clear to me that she not really after a relationship with anypony while we are here, it would be rather nice for her to have somepony to talk to that isn't just me." Starlight nodded her head in a steady motion as she used her magic to move a box full of new cups over to the bar.

"Of course, besides you need to have more time with my son."

Starlight's face broke at that comment as red flooded her face. "Granny Apple that is not what I said at all. You know very well Silver Pear hits on every mare… and stallion… and even trees."

"Yes, but you are the only one that he calls Lovely." Granny Apple quickly caught the box in her hand. She gave little care to its large weight and sat it on the countertop.

"Enough with that nickname," Starlight let loose a small giggle as her face fell forward and her mane dragged over her eyes as magic gripped more boxes. "He's nice, but frankly not my type… Now let's get the stuff ready."

Granny Apple walked over to the window and smiled. "Don't rush too much. It's only the afternoon."

"Yeah, I guess you are right." Starlight stared at the Sun shining over the village. "And it is a beautiful afternoon."

Suddenly a streak of light went over her eyes for only a moment. "Wait what is that?" She put the boxes down and walked closer. She opened the window and pointed to a shiny object moving through the sky.

"What do you mean? Do you see something?" The object moved out of sight before Granny Apple could see it.

"I'm not sure. It's too far to see now, but it looked like a gem… in the middle of the sky."

"Hmm, first moving statues now flying gems. Things are certainly starting to sound strange nowadays." Granny Apple went back to what she was doing.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Starlight leaned her arms onto the rim of the window and gazed at the Sun and sky. "Things are changing in this world in a way." Her voice lowered to a whisper, "Maybe this world will one day be like the Equestria we… use to live in." Her eyes lowered and she gripped her elbows tightly.

* * *

The Sunlight flew over the village and into the Cerberus Plains. Tracing beyond the plains the light cracked through the Pegasus Isles above the Batpony Canyons and finally crashing into the mighty Celestial Ocean.

On the other side of the ocean lied two powerful civilizations. On the outskirts of them laid a large gray prison covered in writing very unfamiliar to any equine of this time. Its windows were covered in thick black bars and the walls were even thicker. In all this building seemed completely impregnable.

The Sun's light wanted to shine on this building yet whatever light got through seemed almost tented in color.

This did little to deter a group of storm clouds as they swarmed over. Despite the dark color of the clouds, no rain was falling out, in fact, the storm clouds seemed strangely calm… that is until they were fully over the prison. The clouds rumbled and churned until finally a single snowflake broke and fell toward the building. The snowflake as red as ever shined bright against the dark backdrop.

The red snowflake descended toward the building very fast but was stopped mere inches from the building in midair. There was seemingly nothing holding it up, yet there it laid as if it was on some sort of surface. It stayed there for a few moments, seemingly looking down upon the building.

Down below two griffins in armor walked out of the building's bolted door entrance. "Damn it, something standing on the invisible wall again." The younger griffin pulled out his wings and flew upward.

"It's probably just a bird." The older griffin pulled out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth before taking to the sky as well. Annoyance grew over the two as they reached top, yet their faces turned to confusion as they saw the red snowflake lying on the wall.

"How did a snowflake get this far into warm weather?" The older one questioned as he lit his cigarette.

"I don't know. But it's red. I've never seen a red snowflake before." The younger one looked up and saw the clouds were quickly dispersing.

"Hmm, looks more like apple red rather than plain red." The older one pulled out his cigarette to puff.

"Nah, closer to a scarlet red, or maybe cranberry red-" The younger one stopped himself and facepalmed. "Wait why are we arguing over the hue. You know the rules of the prison. Nothing, but the light of the heavens get in here." On that, he grabbed out a strange glove and pulled it over his claw. He then reached outward as his gloved claw went through the invisible wall.

He grabbed the red snowflake and tried to crush it. "Eh, what the beak?"

"What is it?" The older one pulled his cigarette away and puffed once more as he flew closer. "Why isn't it crushing?"

"I don't know. It feels like I'm trying to break iron." The younger one struggled.

"Try harder."

"I am!"

The loudness of the younger one's voice echoed down to the prison's nearest window. Inside the sounds woke a prisoner. It was a dark blue hippogriff with green eyes and purple wings in a black and white shirt and pants. He stretched outward as he stood. Twisting his back into a pop he walked over to the window and looked out. His eyes blinked back and forth as he adjusted to the low light. However, as soon as he saw the red snowflake his eyes went wide.

"Hmp, about time. I was beginning to think this punk had declined our offer." He reached his arm out of the window and smile. "Yo griffs, you can stop," he spoke in a terrible attempt at a gangster-like style that gave little sign of respect or care to anypony. "That thing won't be crushed. You best stop before my new boss stallion gets annoyed."

The older looked over to the window. "Quiet you!" He yelled to the hippogriff.

"Puh, I warned you."

"I said shut it-" The older one stopped at the sounds of wails of the younger griffin filling the area. He looked at his friend. "What's wro…?" His words stopped again at what he saw.

The younger griffin's hand was freezing at a fast rate, right to the bone. On pure reaction he pulled his claw through the wall, pulling the red snowflake with it. He held his claw close as it twisted in agony. "Ah! Make it stop!"

"Yo Frosty, go ahead, make it stop," the hippogriff fell down on to the floor laughing his head off. On those words, the red snowflake pulled free from the griffin's hand.

Once back in the sky the red snowflake span around faster than the eye could keep up with. As it span, the ice over the griffin's arm quickly filled with cracks. "No please don't, AH!" The final scream was quickly halted as the griffin's arm shattered.

Filled with shock the young one fell to the ground. The older one dropped his cigarette and flew down after him, not even watching where the red snowflake was at. The red snowflake stopped spinning and flew over to the window of the hippogriff.

The red snowflake flew in and across the room as the hippogriff sat down smiling. "Yo, out of all the creatures you have brought under your cold breath it be an honor that you would choose me."

"If you knew what honor even was I would consider letting you have a quicker death. Now silence yourself, Night Sting." The red snowflake flew right up to the hippogriff throat. "And what makes you think I'm here for you?" Indigo Frost's annoyance reverberated from the red snowflake.

"Because I'm one of the most dastardly killers in here." Night Sting jumped back.

"How droll, but very true. Actually, I'm here for your brother, Night Fiend. But you two are a packaged deal from what words tell."

"That's true. I and my big bro don't go anywhere alone."

"Fine, but where is your brother?"

"Five miles down below. They didn't want a creature like him near any bodies."

"Damn, here." On that, the red snowflake transformed into a strange round sphere and flew right into the wall behind Night Sting.

Night Sting looked to the object in confusion until a big grin formed. "Oh I see, you're not even here."

"Indeed. This is simply one of my many snowflakes. Think of it as literally a piece of me. I can use them to see nearly everything within the right range."

"Why would you need to use such a thing?"

"Because I'm currently on the other side of the map talking with an old ally. Now use this to go get your brother free." On that, the sphere went silent and transformed into a dagger.

The sounds of loud banging filled the room as the guard hit at the door. "Stand back, prisoner, we are coming in."

Night Sting stood up and pulled the dagger out of the wall. "Hmm, I guess that means it finally time... for the Night Brothers to be free."

* * *

Author's Notes

A lot of things are moving, aren't they? I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it was probably the hardest one to get out so far since life problems kept getting the way of my fine-tuning this chapter.

Please comment, like or follow. Whichever you think is best. To get update ahead of posting follow me on [url= /Gryphonstar5678]Twitter[/url].


	5. Chapter 4: Royal Decree

Footsteps echoed through the long stairway as three ponies went down to the sub-basement. The stairway was dark, yet the way wasn't entirely pitch black. The walls were covered in the faint glow of stones that gave off just enough light to see where they were stepping but not enough to see the end.

They came upon wall blocking their path. Just like the first wall, this one had a gem on it, though it was a different design. Topaz Silk placed her hand over the picture and the gem in the picture glowed brightly, the centipede symbol on her hand followed. The wall opened to reveal a room full of machinery that seemed far too advance for this time.

The three walked over to a table and only Topaz Silk took a seat. "Well, was Golden Williams intel correct?"

Rex looked left and right for a moment. When he was certain no snowflakes had followed them he reached into his pocket. "Indeed. But I still don't know why he wants them so badly." He placed the purple agate on the table.

Topaz Silk's reaction was instant as her chair veered back by a few feet and her eyes shrank. "I had hoped he was wrong...Where exactly did you find it?"

"Behind a dark magic wall hidden inside Cassandra's Castle." Clover walked closer to the table and placed her hand on it and pushed it toward the alicorn. "It seems to grow in power from fear." She indicated as the gem let off a small glow the closer it came to the alicorn.

Topaz Silk grabbed her gut and exhaled deeply. The more she calmed her fear away the more the gem's glow faded. "The Wave of Nightmares is one of the legendary Alathar. It has the ability to tap into one's greatest fears."

Rex's eyes narrowed at this. "I know more than anypony of artifacts like this. Now, what does he want with it? You told us he was gathering the Alathar, but not why, nor where they were being held. And because of that, we spent five months on a wild goose chase."

"It is far too early to know what Indigo's true plan is. The Alathar are all very powerful relics that can amplify any form of magic, but most of all they each have their own magic within them that can't be matched… especially when brought together."

"Okay, then can we at least guess what he has planned?" Clover pulled the gem away from Topaz Silk and moved it toward Rex. "We need some sort of path to move. We can't just stand still."

"No, no, no more wild theories. Where are the other Alathar?" Rex slammed his hand down.

"Unfortunately, I don't know." Topaz Silk got up and walked around the table to some of the machines. "However I have a vague idea." She stopped moving and reached into a machine in front of her. She twisted her hand and a wall nearby opened up. Beyond the opening was another wall filled with holes, in each were long scrolls with color handles. "Grab the maroon one."

Clover walked over and pulled out the scroll with the maroon handles while Rex grabbed the gem and put it back up. She brought over it and unrolled it over the table. It was a turquoise colored map with eight maroon marks on it. One of the marks was darker than the rest. "Is this a map for each of the Alathar?"

"Yes and no," Topaz Silk walked back to the table. "You see long ago, an alliance of eight mortal families was made that would hide the Alathar. And that only the families' strongest lines would know where they were. These families were called the Limbs of the Broken One." She reached out her hand and pointed to the darkest mark. "It is powered by dark magic, the brighter the maroon, the greater the chance the family that guards it still resides."

"Hmm, so if we find these family or monuments connected to the family in these areas we could get closer to finding the alathar before Indigo." Rex grabbed the maroon handles of the scroll and rolled it up back up. "Thank you. We have all we need now." He held up the maroon scroll to an opening in one of the scarfs on his arm and it disappeared into the opening's shadow. "Now we must leave."

Topaz Silk stepped to the side and walked over in front of the exit to block them. "Actually you are not going alone this time. Though I don't have any immortals on hand I do have some mortal allies you can take with you."

Rex's eyes narrowed and his arms moved around into a stance. "What allies? We've seen enough death."

Topaz Silk smiled at him. "Strange, you seemed like you wanted allies earlier." She stepped forward and reached out to Rex, placing her hand on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "Or maybe what you said earlier was advice from something else and you've changed your mind."

Rex stopped at those words and pulled away from her grip. His face covered with sweat and he placed his own hand on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "No, I changed my mind of my own accord. He had nothing to do with it."

Topaz Silk let a small giggle at his words. "You change your own mind, fine. Then tell me why you wish for no more allies?"

Rex backtracked only to find Clover now standing behind him with just as much if not more curiosity. He gritted his teeth, "I have my reasons. It would be best that no more join us."

Clover raced around until she was in front of him. "Stop lying. You wanted allies before because the choices before were immortal ones weren't they?"

Rex refused to answer her so Clover walked closer to him. She stopped once she saw his look had not changed. Her eyes narrowed and she slapped him across the face.

"I'll give you two a moment." Topaz Silk walked out of the room and onto the stairway.

The room quickly went quiet. The only noise that could be heard was the echoes of the alicorn's footsteps. The narrow look in Clover's eyes faded and a bit of her mane fell in front of them. She stepped a little closer and he took a step back. "Rex? Are you afraid?"

Rex's face fell and he took another much slower step back, "No, why would I ever be afraid?" He grabbed tightly onto the Dark Alicorn Amulet under the scarf. "There is no point to talk about this."

"Yes, there is a point!" Her voice raised as she stepped closer. "You... You haven't shed a single tear for him. "Just like... Just like... when..." She stopped her words as tears formed in her eyes.

He turned away from her. "I can not change any one creature's fate, no matter how many I face."

She grabbed him by one of his scarfs to stop his retreating. "I know you can see their futures, but that doesn't mean you can't change them. It doesn't mean you can't save-"

"I can only protect them." He attempted swatting her hand away. "With this power around my chest."

She gripped tighter and reached around his body with her other hand, placing it on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "Yes, he gives you what power he can, but you can't rely on immortal power alone."

He exhaled slowly before answering her with a lower tone. "As an immortal... I must rely on immortals," He pulled away completely.

"I… I see." Clover's arms dropped as a single tear fell to the ground.

* * *

Tumbles of pony movement waved through the village. Joyousness filling their minds on this Sunday afternoon. Many of them wanted to enjoy this day as much as they could before it could end. Over at a small outside diner, some ponies were even on dates. Some looked really happy, unfortunately, one was not.

"Curse that student of mine!" a loud yell filled the area as Twilight slammed her book.

"I assume... you are done reading? I'm sure… she will be back." Crimson twisted in his chair unable to stand still.

"It's been two full hours. Plus I've read this book 126 times now." Twilight leaned over the table and gestured her hand into a number. "She is up to something, I know it." She threw her arms up in distress. However, she retracted them as the faces of ponies around filled with glares. She took a deep breath and spoke silent sorry to the glares and straighten herself in the chair. She looked to Crimson who was now playing with his food.

Crimson had not even noticed the glares, instead, he listened to each of her words carefully as always.

She put on a brave smile and straighten herself. "Okay, sorry I got sidetracked. You were asking about Ponyville this time right?"

"Yes," his ears went up. "I mean... unless you are more curious about Starlight."

Twilight smiled and reached over with her hand. "Look, I don't mind talking about my homeland while reading. We just needed somewhere to sit while waiting."

He smiled at that answer and his shyness did weaken as well as he turned to face her. "Okay, you were talking about how your castle formed?" He faced her properly and she pulled her hand away.

"Oh, yeah. it happened through a ridiculous fight with a centaur and the crazy use of a box that popped out of the Tree of Harmony." Twilight seemed to be skimming through details rather fast today. "Really... what proved to be the biggest moment of this was that I came to understand the ideals of friendship better than I ever thought."

"Really?" His eyes wandered to his bowtie for a rather long moment. He exhaled deeply and looked back up to Twilight and slowly reached over with his hand. "Yeah, such an ideal does have it's power-"

Twilight jumped back inadvertently and interrupted him. "Yet not strong enough to stop Starlight from…" She stopped and huffed before crossing her arms and sat back. "Hmp, I may just push her training harder tomorrow."

"Hmm... why do you train her anyway?" His voice dropped the moment Twilight's hand went out of reach, "It's… not like you two… are soldiers. Besides, this village is far too much into peace… to get involved in the battles Princess Platinum is currently having."

"True, and the only ones that even know we do our training are you, Granny Apple, Silver Pear and a few of the regulars."

"You mean like… Lighttone." A smile grew on Crimson's face.

"Yeah, like him."

"You know I would like to meet him one day. I mean if that isn't a problem." His voice seemed slightly off at that, almost joyful and with very little shyness at all.

"Hmm, how about you come over tonight? He usually shows up to look at the weekly orders to see what he might like." Twilight finally scooped up some of the food in front of her and put it into her mouth.

"Really?" Joyfulness intensified in his voice. "Wait… tonight at the… the bar… the tavern you work at." Instantly his shyness had return tenfold.

Twilight raised a slightly annoyed eyebrow at this and swallowed her meal, clearing her throat. She reached out and grabbed his hand again. "Okay, something wrong?" She questioned with a weakened smile at the blush that was now very clear in his face.

Crimson took his hand back and pushed away his blush. "No, nothing is wrong..." He stopped and turned to the side of his chair and looked up to the sky, "The truth is… I used to know him. We… were friends."

Twilight's eyes went wide at that word 'friend'.

"Friendship." A random word she had used all the time but hearing it from somepony else threw something inside her completely off. She froze in place.

Crimson raised an eyebrow and slowly reached over. He shook her shoulder and then jolted away, hoping for some sort of reaction. Nothing happened for several moments.

Truthfully Twilight didn't even notice as rambles of voices swirled through her head. Six voices, in fact, six distinct voices. They sounded so familiar yet she couldn't for some reason place where she had heard them before or who these voices belong to. One thing was clear they were certainly the same voices from this morning. Which brought up more questions as in the morning she could place those voices perfectly, but now it was as if there was a fog over their faces and names deep in her mind. A fog brought about by hearing a single word.

Slowly the voices stopped and she swung her head back and forth really fast once, seeming like she was knocking something away from her head. She stopped afterward and didn't give a single other reaction for several moments.

It brought a lot of concern to Crimson. "Twilight…"

Hearing her name finally made her answer, "Yeah… just friendsh-"

"Hey, look at the sky." A random voice behind Twilight broke her words.

"What is that?" Another voice spoke even louder.

Twilight raised both her eyebrows at then but tried to ignore it. However, Crimson looked up as well and a great shadow quickly covered the ground, tables and soon even the building as everything began to shake. Twilight dropped her food and stood right up. "Crimson, what is it?"

"It's… a giant gem."

Twilight turned around at those words and looked to what all were seeing. The second she laid her eye upon it, they went wide. It was indeed a giant ruby gem, larger than the very building they were right next to. The gem seemed to be floating in a form of magic. Though it was not a form of magic she had ever seen before. One thing was for sure, this gem wasn't sent here by any normal magic user.

Suddenly the gem sent off a strange loud buzzing sound. It was so loud that every pony within even a small distance away had to cover their ears in strain, yet any pony nearest fell to the ground in absolute pain.

Twilight did whatever she could to stand her ground, yet it was quickly becoming hard as blood was now pouring from her ears. Her leg dropped once and her eye winced. Things got worse as the wound over under her eyepatch began to burn and... glow. At that exact moment though, the sound stopped. "Why is my wound reacting to it?"

A bright light shot out of the gem and an image formed within it. The image was of a lone pony chained up in what appeared to be the center of a giant stadium. "Ponies of the Unicorn Providence." A voice filled with royalty and vast age spoke from somewhere outside of the sight of the image. "Your princess has seen fit to resist my armies for long enough. This is King Emerald Teal of the Crystal Empire and I declare a full-scale war with you all." On that, a crystal blade shot outside of the image's scope and cleaved the prisoner's head clean off.

Many of the ponies watching gasped at these actions. Some even turned away as the pony's blood poured across the ground. Meanwhile species like griffin and hippogriff backed away in disdain. All while, Twilight couldn't help but ignore the sight of it, as the pain in her eye was getting worse.

Finally, the image vanished and the gem's light dissipated. Strangely enough so did the pain in Twilight's wound. She stood up and rubbed her eye a little and turned toward Crimson, only to find him gone. She looked at the table and saw a note saying that he would show up tonight… maybe.

Of course, there were no other things to be concerned about. Twilight turned back around to face the gem as it slowly moved away from the village. "This wasn't part of the history books?"

* * *

In a far-off land, miles deep underground there stood a pale white fortress covered in endless light. There was not a single shadow that could touch it. Within this fortress were many empty rooms with lights of varying levels of brightness. However, in the brightest room at the center sat six creatures around a rectangular table. One black batpony at the far end, one gray griffin and one gold siren on the left side, one white changeling and one white ifrit on the right side and one pale crystal pony at the front end. Each had their own group of guards standing around them.

They were all staring at the white ifrit with great annoyance. "So you want to tell us how he found one of the Alathar?"

"I don't know what you mean." the white ifrit tried to push away the idea.

"Why do you think we called this meeting?" the gray griffin spoke up.

"I thought it was because of the attacks that Indigo Frost orchestrated," the white ifrit waved his arms over them.

"Not just that. It seems he almost claimed one of the Alathar!" rage filled the pale crystal pony's mouth.

"Who is this Indigo, anyway?" the white changeling mare twisted her fingers through her mane.

"Some crazy wendigo claiming to be the original king." the gold siren leaned back unfazed by their words. "He is nothing to us but a faker, what matters now though is that the Wave of Nightmares is in the hands of Rex Moba."

An air of uneasiness filled the steel cold room as some of them twisted around in their chairs at that name.

"Damn it, we can't keep being afraid of some umbrum who for all we know doesn't know we exist." the black batpony stood up. "We should be more worried about these attacks."

"Yes, but if he finds more-"

"He won't." On that, the black batpony pulled out a green lapis lazuri rod. "As you can see I have already taken precautions."

"You dare bring an Alathar here." The pale crystal pony stood up. "Remove it at once. We are their sacred guardians. You know how dangerous it is to remove one of the Alathar from their holding."

"Yeah, this is madness," The white changeling scooted back. However, she stopped upon crashing into somepony behind her.

"And here I thought Frost was supposed to be more mad then you all." They stopped at that voice. The room went so quiet that the only noise could be heard were their breaths. All of them move their eyes around until they finally stopped upon the intruder in the room.

Standing behind the changeling was a strange looking wrinkly stallion with dark mold green flesh in a blacken grey cloak.

"No, you…?" the white ifrit trembled in confusion as his flames dimmed.

"You… who are you?" the gray griffin questioned. He looked to the white ifrit, "Sage, do you know him?"

The white ifrit refused to answer as he scooted back; a blanket of fear covering his form from head to toe.

The intruder walked slowly around the room. Each creature kept their guard around him, not showing any sign of weakness. Yet they couldn't hide the reaction to the stink that filled the room with each step he took. His breath stank of... corpses. Soon though he arrived back near the spot he appeared and smiled as he looked over all.

"I don't care who he is." The black batpony gestured to his guards to surround him.

"Really?" The intruder pulled at his collar. "You are the Limbs of the Broken One. Hiders of his greatest power and servants of his might." His hands raised to them all before letting them fall to his tattered cloak.

The black batpony huffed at his words. "Give me a reason why my friends shouldn't kill you right now."

"Because I'm here on a promise." He held his hands together in a grasp and leaned his head over them in a pleading motion. The intruder's words and actions fell on deaf ears as the guard walked over.

However, the intruder couldn't help but smile at this. "Look all he wants is the Alathar for-" He was interrupted as the guard tried to punch him.

Much to everypony shock though, the fist tore through the flesh like paper. The guard himself wasn't filled with shock, but disgust as he could feel bones of the jawline and even the crack covered teeth rub against his knuckles. "What is thi-" The guard tried to question the feel before pain racked through his hand as something grabbed hold.

As the guard riled in pain from the spot his fist was tearing through spewed out tentacles. These less dark mold green color flesh ligaments were crawling over the guard's hand, leaving a circular bite mark with each movement. Once they found a good spot the tentacles press down at a force and twirled the guard's arms until the bones tore out. The guard's eyes filled with tears and he almost pleaded with him to stop twisting. The intruder raised his hands up to the guard's head. "Oh fine," His smile turned to a frown as he released his grip.

All of them gasped at this. However, he quickly followed this by digging his fingers into the guard's throat and with very little effort, he ripped the guard's head clean off his shoulders. "Hmm, fool."

"Enough of this!" the pale crystal pony sent all of his guards over to the intruder. "You will not have any of the Alathar at all. Now leave."

More guards charged at the intruder. He ducked and grabbed the first one by the leg, yanking him to the ground. Meanwhile, he flipped his body into the air and threw his foot toward another; the flesh of his bare foot ripped open and more tentacles tore through the second one's chest. Blood spewed into the eyes of the others, blinding them. The intruder pulled the first one over and tentacles from his mouth forced it opened so wide that flesh ripped from cheek to ear. Soon a giant beak shot out of his mouth and bit down into the first one's stomach, slurping up his wormy intrels the stallion could barely struggle. The third and fourth one charged in only to find themselves being fought off as more tentacles ripped out of his lower extremities while he continued to feast.

The second one fell to the ground as his chest kept gushing out blood. At the same time, the intruder finished feasting on the first one and jumped upward with one hand and landed on the table, licking his beak of all the blood before pulling it back into his mouth. The two remaining guards moved back in shock. Weak movement filled their eyes, yet they couldn't give up. They charged right at him and he smiled at this as tentacles from his own mouth wiped over his lips and sealed the wound around his mouth.

"Enough Star Stone," the white changeling spoke up, stopping the guards advance. "I want to hear what he is offering." She gestured for her guard to push over a chair for the intruder.

The intruder smiled at her action, got off the table and sat down. He watched the guards walk back to their leader as he grabbed out a napkin while his tentacles reseeded and the flesh resealed, leaving a strange burnt smell in their wake. He wiped his face and hand clean of the blood before placing it back up.

"Let's look back around five thousand years, back when Indigo's family tree was a member of this group." His claims angered Star Stone, but the intruder gave little care to the crystal pony's reactions. "Your leader Dracos was on the run for deeds he claimed he didn't commit and the nine founding families of this group were still here. Soon though two families left to join him in hiding and Indigo's family was already pushing themselves more and more away from this group to watch over his kingdom… And try to make new allies." His voice slowed at that last part before resuming its natural flow. "Things seemed fine, heck even after Indigo's kingdom fell apart the group stayed strong." On that final word, he held out his hand as the flesh opened up. Tentacles spewed out holding a red horn.

All of them gave the same reaction of disgust and shock upon seeing the red horn. "That is until just twenty-four hundred years back when Carmilla Darkest was killed and this group slowly devolved into a hiding spot for cowards." The intruder couldn't help but let a small snicker loose at the sweat growing on their faces. "I mean, I know at least three reasons to worry. She was the last founder to die, was the Broken One's most trusted ally and the queen of the umbrums." He removed the piece and an air of relief filled the room. "But what I find most SICKENING is you all would rather turn tail and run rather than take revenge on the very stallion behind the deed!"

"Hmp," the black batpony twisted the Alathar in his hand. "So he is offering us the head of Rex Moba."

"Yes, the lapdog of the alicorns on a silver platter."

"Well, no thanks." The black batpony put the Alathar in his coat and stood up. "We are not afraid of anypony at all. And certainly not some psycho fake king-"

Instantly he was stopped as a thin bony like wing rose up from under the table without any warning and tore through his skull. The Alathar dropped out of his coat and rolled over to the intruder's hand.

He smiled and retracted out the wing from under the table and back to his shoulder blade, there it went back into the flesh as if it was never there. "Thank you, but in truth, I said from the beginning that he will have the Alathar." Looking over them all as his hand opened up and the tentacle took the Alathar into his flesh. "And since you won't accept his deal, you all will be forced to tell him where the others are."

"We will not give in to your demand-" Star Stone was stopped as figures appeared behind them all. All the figures looked like wendigoes, yet for some reason, they seemed different; almost fake in form. "How? This room is full of light magic." He was stopped again as the figures grabbed them all. "None of Indigo's dark magic can get in here."

"Exactly, but he didn't form these... lovely sculptures," the intruder rose up from his chair and walked over to Star Stone. "I did." He reached out to Star Stone and slid his fingers through the side of his mane. "With this much light here you are out of the reach of Rex, Indigo and even your long-dead god; but not from me."

"Your master will not succeed. We won't give in to his demands, even if you torture us." Star Stone knocked the hand away, stood true and strong despite the grip of the figures getting stronger.

"Oh, poor little colt. You know nothing of what you are saying, not understanding what he is planning." He grabbed him by the face, pressing his thumb tightly on the cheek. "He is doing this as a kindness." He leaned his face in close enough that his terrible breath almost smelled like poison. "Maybe once we are done, you will see things his way and believe in the ways of the monster." On that, he dropped his hands and punched him in the gut.

Star Stone felt bile rising from his stomach. However, it stopped as his eyes become too heavy to hold. As his eyes wane he looked to the intruder once more as his mouth fell and drool gave way. "What are you?"

"I am the one who gives knowledge to the ignorant. The light in his darkness. I am Thule."

* * *

The Sun lowered and from the afternoon to close evening causing the light to dim in the village as Twilight was walking down the road toward the tavern. Steams of anger covered her face as the cold winds and clear skies very cleanly showed off her breath like fumes of fire.

Eventually, she found the tavern. She knew she couldn't walk in angry. Starlight maybe had her reasons, or maybe Starlight had been distracted by the message. Twilight wasn't for sure which possibility it was. She had to take a breath and calm herself before she stepped inside.

"Come on, Twilight. You can't stay angry." She exhaled deeply and pushed out the air in an almost flame-like breath upon the cold air. She walked forward and reached for the door. But she stopped… as something crawled over the doorknob.

It was a spider. The same brown spider that had been watching them yesterday. "Wait a minute," Twilight held out her hand. "You're Starlight's pet spider… Gáidaros."

The spider slowly crawled into her hand. Seeing the spider, made Twilight's mind go at ease, though a little quicker than one might think. "What are you doing out here? This weather is far too cold for you." Twilight reached for the door with her other hand and opened it.

Inside the place was filled with the smell of cleaning tools. Starlight was cleaning some tables with them, moving them around in her magic. She turned to the sound of the doorbell, smiled upon seeing Twilight and put down the stuff. "Twilight you're back. I thought you would spend more time with Crimson." She walked over and greeted her, only to be stopped upon Twilight holding out her hand.

"I did until he vanished on me!" Twilight's voice raised slightly and slowly dimmed down upon holding out the spider. "By the way, your spider was outside."

"What? Gáidaros?" Starlight picked up the spider in her magic. "Hmm, strange that you were even able to pick him up. He usually distrust most ponies that are slightly in anger."

However, upon the Gáidaros being removed, Twilight's anger shined in full force. "Well, maybe I wouldn't be angry if you hadn't disappeared on me, especially after what happened today."

"Happened? What do you mean?" Starlight placed Gáidaros on the table. "The day hasn't even arrived." Starlight's words slipped before she could stop them.

"The day?! What are you even talking about? Today, the alicorns just declared a full-scale war on this country!" Twilight threw up her hands in annoyance, just as Silver Pear walked in from behind her.

"What?" Starlight's eyes widened. "Why?"

"I don't know. But it looks like we will have to be ready for anything now. Training will be doubled tomorrow." Twilight walked around the tables for a moment or two, slightly huffing until she got over to the bar and grabbed a cup, using her magic to fill it with some cider.

"No, we can't rush into this." Starlight waved her hands in dismissal. "Besides this village lies on the outskirts of the country. Maybe it will miss us-"

"It won't." Silver Pear interrupted her. "I just came back from the mayor's office. He wants all able bodies to be ready for when our princess calls on us."

Starlight was completely at a gasped at this. She tried to speak but her words kept escaping her. Her voice filled with stutters.

"What going on?" Granny Apple asked as she walked in from the back.

"War… is happening." Twilight gulped down the entire cup of cider in one go. "And what worse…" Twilight stopped for a moment and placed the cup down before finally finishing. "I received a warning that a great evil will soon appear as well."

"Where from?" Silver Pear questioned.

"A dream, or should I say a nightmare. It happened this morning. I wanted to ignore it but after what happened today..."

Starlight was in complete shock at hearing their words. She didn't know how to even react to Twilight's words let alone Silver Pear's words. He knew what day Starlight had been talking about, but had Twilight completely forgotten. Finally, Starlight's mouth stopped stuttering and she spoke clearly. "We can get through this. Nothing will stop the big day's events from happening."

Twilight glared at Starlight. "Events, what by Celestia's good graces could you possibly be planning that's not as important as what I and Silver pear just told you!"

"Look, Twilight, that's taking it a little too far." Silver Pear intruded on her words. "I'm sure we will find some way."

"Of course you take your 'Lovely's side'." Twilight swung her cup around in anger. Not looking where she was swinging it, it sent shattering sounds into the air. Twilight winced in pain and grabbed her hand as blood spilled.

"Oh, poor dear." Granny Apple walked over and pulled out a cloth.

Twilight opened her eyes and took the cloth in her magic. She wrapped it over her hand and walked back over to the door. Lightly pushing Silver Pear out of the way, she opened the door and looked outside.

"Twilight stop…" Starlight tried to speak.

Twilight took a shallow breath to hide the tear that was now falling. "Look, I already knew what day my student has been going on about."

"You… You did."

"I would never forget that day." Twilight gripped the door tightly and slowly stepped outside. "No matter how much I want to." That was the final word she spoke before slamming the door shut.

The sounds of the door's vibrations did little to break the shock Starlight had for Twilight's final words. It wasn't until a small tear fell from her own eye did she finally break from the shock and fell into a nearby chair.

"Should I go after her?" Silver Pear turned toward the door.

"No, leave her be. She just needs more time." Granny Apple looked toward Starlight with a sad look. "It seems they both need more time."

Granny Apple kneeled down and picked up the pieces of the broken cup. She stopped her movement before reaching the trash. "Hmm, cider shouldn't be this color." In the end, she gave little care to the light maroon color and threw the pieces into the trash with a crash.

* * *

The sounds of the doors from the cathedral opening echoed down through the plaza as evening services ended for the day. Ponies shuffled down the road leaving for their homes. Movement kept up until there were none left. A swift emptiness tore through the door. Soon though Rex and Clover walked out as the magic surrounded the doors and closed them. The two were rather quiet upon leaving, they had little to say to each other.

Clover let her eyes wander away from Rex as much as she could. Suddenly her eyes caught the glimpse of the tan colt she saw before. She smiled upon the sight of the child running around its parents.

Rex noticed her halt in movement. He turned to her and stopped as well. He looked to what she saw, a heavy breath expelling from his lungs. "Look, Clover, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I… I understand." She turned forward and walked ahead of him.

"No, unfortunately," his breath hid his final words from her. His eyes winced as he turned and followed after her.

"Well, isn't this a sight?" an old voice caught their attention, making Clover and Rex stop. They turned to the voice and Clover's eyes lit up upon the sight of two stallions.

The older one that spoke up was a gray unicorn wizard with yellow eyes and a long white mane with an overly curly long white beard in golden star covered dark blue pointy hat and a golden star covered dark blue cloak over a light blue and light gray tunic and light gray slacks with a pair of light blue pointy overshoes.

"Master Starswirl!" she ran over and hugged the old wizard.

"It's good to see you too, Clover." He patted her on the head and returned the gesture.

Rex walked over as the two separated and looked toward the other stallion. This one was middle-aged and was a yellow earth pony with brown short ponytail mane under a black pirate's hat. He wore a green frock coat over a gray vest with a white shirt and a pair of gray pants with one black boot that always seemed to be covered in sand.

"Fredricson," Rex lowered his head.

"I heard my son died protecting Little Miss Clever here." Fredricson tilted his head toward Clover with the little nickname he had for her.

"Yes, unfortunately. We tried to contact you after we sent his body to his mother, but..."

"But the scourge of a storm we were in prevented all messages." Fredricson interrupted him as his hand lifted up to his hat. "It be a fine thing you did though. Still, his mother isn't exactly going to let me go see him right now. She is still a little bit hissy over a little fling I had with her sister just last month." He let a smile slip upon mocking his ex, yet Rex could see rage hidden deep within those old gray eyes.

Clover looked to Fredricson, "Well, Rex is sorry, if we had been more prepared this wouldn't have happened."

Fredricson looked to her "Don't be concerned. Like Rex here, we know the selfishness of the alicorns all too well." He tapped on his wooden leg and turned away.

"Still, it is my fault Clover, no matter what." Rex walked a few stepped ahead of them before stopping. "I'm assuming Topaz Silk called for you two."

"Not quite, but it does seem we are after the same target now." Starswirl turned to Rex.

"Fine, where is your ship?"

Fredricson huffed after a moment. "Can't we at least get some rum before we go?"

"No, we will lose too much time."

"Wait," Clover walked over. "Topaz Silk already told us where the Alathar are, shouldn't we take a moment before rushing off." She stopped right in front of Rex. "We need to figure out why he is even after them."

Rex's eyes lifted up and walked ahead of her. "I know what Indigo Frost is after. At least I think I do." Starswirl and Fredricson both looked to Rex at those words. "He wants to resurrect the Broken One." Rex's hand raised to the Dark Alicorn Amulet and under his breath, he whispered, "Though I hope I'm wrong."

Fredricson held his hand to his face and grabbed it in annoyance. "Damn it, fine, but don't rush me." He chased after Rex before he got too far. "You need to know something before getting to the ship."

Clover stood still and didn't move. She tried to calm herself, but her mentor could see the fear growing on her face. "What is it, Clover?"

"Master, am I not strong enough?" Her eyes never left Rex.

Starswirl raised his hand and pushed some of her mane away from her face. "I know your feelings for him are strong, you felt the same way since you met him as a child. But it will take some time before you can truly replace her spot in his heart."

* * *

As the evening light fully faded away it gave one final shine over the plains, over the mountains and finally over the oceans. Across the ocean through no light could reach for a darkening was growing followed by echoes of pain.

Reaching source the great pain was sweeping outward from the prison that the griffins ran. The build shook and cracked as griffins flew out of it as quickly as their wings could take them. Their screams filled the air as two hippogriffs slowly walked out behind them.

"Wow, Night Fiend. You didn't have to torture so many." Sting practically was jumping in joy upon his freedom as he dropped some dubstep noises.

"Your explosives did most of the work. But, of course, I had to brother. They dare hold us captive." Night Fiend was not only taller than his brother, but he was also much thinner and clearly less healthy. His face was incredibly pale and his voice was very hoarse under the gas mask he was wearing over his mouth. "And will you please stop with the 'sick' beats. We are royalty, not gangsters."

"Yo, you know very well we aren't anymore. Not since Momma Dear got pissed at us." Sting nearly laughed aloud from the thoughts.

"Truth be told, what we did to our sister was quite cruel." Fiend grasped his hands together and popped the bones. "Oh, that reminds me, did you find my gloves."

"Yo, of course, I did." Sting pulled out the gloves and gave them to his brother before getting completely out of the way. Searching his pockets he pulled out the white orb that Indigo Frost had given them to escape.

Fiend pulled the gloves tightly over his hands and stretched them into a perfect fit as the symbols on them began to glow. "If the king of snow and ice wants my help, I better make sure my powers haven't faltered in all these years." He gestured with his left hand and Sting tossed the white orb over. At the same time, Fiend raised his right hand over the prison's remains and the fallen griffins inside. "Oh, griffins would you mind helping me out."

Many of the griffins on the ground twisted and squirmed away at the sight of those gloves. Fear covered their faces like a swarm of disease. Most of them pushed away from him with enough force to make their limbs bleed.

Fiend frowned at their reaction. "That's not good enough."

On that final word, he closed his right hand and the glowing increased in brightness. The white orb in his left hand shook and bounce as it began to melt. Once it was gone, all the griffins screamed in agony as their bodies glowed and strange orbs ripped from them. All the light surged toward his glove making it glow brighter. The screams became louder and more twisted as the lights slowly faded away. Once the light vanished the screaming stopped. A deathly quiet filled the air as the bodies laid frozen in place. Each of them with the same face of fear only with all eyes turned black.

Fiend brought the glove to his ear and listen. His cheek perked up at the sounds of the screams hidden deep within the glove. "Aw, these souls shall prove most useful. And to think that ice piece had that much magic within it."

"Indeed. This cuz is trusting us quite a bit."

"Enough of that language brother. He is our ally. He is certainly not some gangster you met... in the hood." Fiend brought the glowing glove to his gas mask. In the center of the glove was a small gem that perfectly fit into the hole on his gas mask. The glowing slowly vanished as his body's muscles twisted and pulsed. His face grew less pale and his breathing eased. He moved the glove away once the light had completely faded. "Ah, sheer power. He better offer me plenty of souls for this deal."

"Well, duh. Why wouldn't he want the greatest necromancer in the land on his side." Sting turned toward the sky and pulled out his large wings widely.

"Oh, I'm just a meager small fry compared to the evil he wants to release." Fiend turned to the sky as well and pulled out his very thin wings. "That is unless he has a different plan."

Both of them took to the sky and flew west as the Moon rose in front of them in the far distance.

* * *

The Moon's light shined over the crystal towers as Rex and Fredricson arrived at a large platform. "Okay, whose bright idea was it to park the Titan so far from the cathedral?" Rex questioned as he caught his breath.

"Eye, don't blame me that the falter of followers was so widespread today." Fredricson wiped the sweat off his face. "It be luck that we found a spot to land at all. We don't have access to instant travel through those dastardly shadows of your."

"Still, you could have told me where you parked and I would have just teleported over." Rex stopped his breathing and walked over to the ship on the platform.

The Titan was a small navy blue airship with yellow sails and a single tall gray smoke tower. Though it was one of the smallest designed, it was no slouch in such ideas. The inside was massive. It had been a long time since Rex had step foot in this old airship yet even now he could still remember his first time in there and his amazement to the designs of Fredricson's creation.

"Hmm, I'm almost surprised it still stands." Rex was joking of course.

"Hey, this beauty of mine can't quit as long as I'm aliv-"

"BUT IT WOULD HELP IF YOU TOOK BETTER CARE OF IT?" A loud shrewd voice interrupted the earth pony. The distinct voice sent a pale color through his face.

The door to the ship opened and a rather not so young batpony mare and an extremely young light orange siren filly walked out of this ship.

The batpony was white with blue eyes and a long curly black mane. Shorter then Fredricson in height, but wide around the chest and hips thinned around the waist by her black dress corset combo that barely covered her chest and went down to her red high heels.

"Wait a minute." Rex raised an eyebrow to the sight of them, particularly the batpony. "Aren't you-" He was stopped rather quickly as she threw her cane at him. He jumped over it and the cane fell into his shadows and back out right in front of the old mare.

"Yes, I am, Lady Cat."

Rex facepalmed at that name as he looked toward Fredricson. "You brought Mon's aunt with you." He rubbed his eyebrows as the other part of the problem flew through his head. "Wait a minute, this is the one you had an affair with?"

"Eye," Fredricson tried to hide his toothy grin under his fear though it wasn't working very well. "She be quite the mare."

"I think I've heard enough." Rex hid his revulsions and walked past all of them and onto the ship. All without even asking who the siren filly was.

"Wait..." Fredricson stopped himself and just let Rex walk off.

Soon Clover and Starswirl walked up. "Hmm, I see Rex has found out about our current guess." Starswirl stroked his beard as he walked over to the siren filly. "Did the big umbrum scare you any?"

The filly slowly nodded and cling tightly to Lady Cat's leg. The filly was barely tall enough to reach Lady Cat's kneecap. She had curly orange mane bigger than her head. Wearing a lavender jacket over a purple dress and purple tall wall boots made her look even cuter.

Clover smiled at the cute little thing and walked right over. "Aww, and what it your name?"

"It..." the filly's words were practically mumbles at the end.

"Aww, she is such a cutie." Clover couldn't help herself and she picked up the filly and held her in her arms. "Come on, you can trust aunty Clover, I'll keep you safe from that rough around the edges uncle Rex."

"My name... is Adagio... Adagio Dazzle."

Starswirl smiled. "This is our current mission. Apparently Indigo took her sisters for some unknown reason."

* * *

Yeah, Journey To Hearth's Warming is back up. Sorry for the break, from family problems to work problems and a rather long going painful ear aches just wouldn't let me work and to top things off right when I'm finally free enough and well enough to work my laptop shatters.

It took a full week to fix everything completely. Things are working now just extremely slow.

Don't forget to comment, like or follow. Whichever you think is best. To get update ahead on posting follow me on [url= /Gryphonstar5678]Twitter[/url].


	6. Chapter 5: The Screams

Deep in an underground cave in the lands to the far south groups of zebras gather around a giant flame chanting to single zebra covered in light blue royal robes with a very exposed chest and a silver and blue crown over his brow. He walked up to the flame and pulled out two things; a bar of metal that was covered in a strange powder and a spitting cobra. The other zebras gave no surprise to such things and continued to chant.

He held the metal bar up and the chanting zebras echoes matched the swings it made. Once the chanting was at it highest he brought it down and held a part of it in the flame. The chanting stopped and turned into a small hymn. He smiled to the sounds and took the spitting cobra and beat it over the metal bar.

The metal bar started to change shape, it became longer and thinner; a sharp tip formed on it that tore through the flesh of the cobra. Much to the surprise of the chanters it didn't bleed at all. The beating continued until the cobra was nothing but a shredded piece of meat. Once finished he threw it to the ground and held the newly formed sword up high as he turned to pose proudly. The flames to his back gave him an almost ethereal look.

"Praise our great lord for another victory!" shouted a random zebra.

"Where shall we attack next, my lord?" one of the zebra question.

"Yes, we should make another move against them," another urged.

"That blasphemous Gevind Clan shall suffer your hammer for following such evil beings," one boasted.

"Alicorns could never take the place of our mighty god!"

The single zebra held up his hand and calmed his followers; moving it back down once they even calmed their voice. "Oh, loyal Nie Verlore clan. We serve Sanity the great god of darkness and space without falter. Be patient my children. We will make another move soon, there is another reason I have called you all here." On that, he pulled out a scroll with the symbol of a red snowflake on it. "This is from somepony who shares our hatred of the alicorn-"

"Ogun!" a weaken zebra ran in through the entrance making the chanters disperse.

The head zebra stopped his words and put the scroll away. He walked over to the weaken zebra. "What is it, my child?"

"The alicorns weapon..." His voice went shallow as he struggled to stand. Despite his will, his legs gave out, blood pouring from them like a fountain.

One of the chanters moved in and caught the loyal zebra. "What happened? What weapon?" He looked to the wounds and was filled with confusion. They didn't have any cut marks at all yet the zebra was clearly bleeding.

"AHHH!" the zebra screamed aloud and scratched at the spot where the blood was coming from. "Make it stop, make it stop. Please..." He scratched hard until actual cuts finally did appear, despite this the pain never stopped.

"Make what stop-" The chanter stopped and dropped the wounded zebra and moved back, screaming filling his voice as well. He grabbed his fingers and scratched at them. "It hurts! Something is hurting me!"

Seeing now two of his followers in great pain made the head zebra go pale. His feet shook and he slowly moved back. "No... What is happening?"

"Father, father. He is here!" another zebra ran in and fell to the ground covered in scratches and blood. The head zebra was brought out of his fear by the voice.

"Who?" He rushed over and grabbed the hand of the weakening zebra. "Who, my child? Who did this?"

"Ogun listen... He... He... He is... Blood..." His voice weakened as red filled puss poured from his mouth. "Blooood... Bloooood..." His voice faded as his eyes dulled.

Ogun's eyes shook uncontrollably. He squeezed the zebra's hand tightly, yet there was no returning grip. Without warning painful stings filled his own hand as well. On pure reaction, he lost his grip and pulled his hand away as the pain became too much.

Ogun jumped back and looked at his hand. Again nothing could be seen, yet the pain felt as if something was digging deep into his flesh. He swung his hand about as he fought the urge the scratch.

However, he stopped at a shine brought on by the light. He swung slower and found that a shine on his hand could be seen in the light of the flame. He turned toward the flame and walked closer. His followers were filled with perplexity at his movement and didn't remove their eyes from him, despite more zebras stumbling in with the same pains.

Ogun got as close to the flame as he could but stopped as the shine got brighter. Now being able to see what was causing shine made everything finally became clear. "Blood... Blood... Blood diamonds..."

On those final words, swarms of giant crystal shards shot out from the grounds of the cave. Ogun looked to his newly form sword with rage and turned to the shards as they closed in. He charged forward swinging, ready for a battle.

Red poured over the ground and quickly flooded the cave floor. Echoes of metal followed suit as the red got thicker and thicker. The echoes slowly turned to screams.

The screams... The screams...

* * *

Soft screams tore through the empty roads back in the village. A swing-set tattered in the wind in front of the first lights of the Moon. The beating against some metal mimicking screams all too well.

Nothing was on it or even near it. However, someone was watching it. Soft winter blue eyes watched each swing it made. Sitting on a roof of a nearby building he took in cold air with great solace. A soft frown was on his face. It wasn't sad or filled with anger, but more of a complacent mindset. Like he was in another world, yet was still enjoying the soft touch of the snowflakes.

His ears pitched up at a disturbance. He looked down from his perch and saw Twilight kicking at the snow in front of her. A frown of anger covered her face. His own complacency faded at the sight of her. "Ham, what is she doing up this late?" He pulled his legs off the edge and stood up. His snow white cape flowed by his feet.

His ear tattered back and forth and his gaze deepened. "So... it has begun."

Down below Twilight shivered and huffed as her eye watched the very same swing-set fell back and forth. She sat there at the same table from before, lightly kicking at the snow in front of her. Her head was lying on its side with her arms haphazardly held around it. She wasn't crying, more like she was annoyed at herself.

'Why did I let my temper get the better of me? Starlight didn't deserve that rage.' Her thoughts rumbled on these words far too long than needed.

"Puh, rage. It wasn't much of rage," she lied to herself again for the second time tonight. She rolled her eye around. She needed some time to herself she guessed.

Her eye stopped moving as the sounds of the swing set vanished. Her chill wasn't gone, but the winds had calmed. Her eye wandered to anything to find more sounds to watch and listen to. Her sight stopped at a shadow behind her. Her breath went shallow at the shape.

"Is my eye playing tricks on me?" Her light whispers were the only thing that stopped the shadow's movement.

Soon enough though the movement continued. She gripped at her shoulders and hugged her head inward as the sight of what looked like horns on the head of the shadow. "Back off you old goat!"

"Who are you talking to?"

Her head jumped at that tattered voice that couldn't dare belong to anypony she was suspecting at all. She turned to see Crimson standing just a few feet away. "Oh, it just you." Her shallow breath vanished. A sigh of relief blanketed her. "What are you doing here? I thought you had to be somewhere?"

"Well," It turns out I didn't." He walked over and pulled out a chair. "I'm right where I need to be."

She turned away from him and put her head down. "Leave me alone."

"It's not best to sulk alone."

"Shut up. I'm not sulking." Twilight's yell pushed him back and she retracted her words. "Sorry, Crimson." She bit her lip and scooted up in her chair but still kept her face away from him.

He stopped his retreat and sat down in the chair. He took a deep breath and looked around before leaning his head down as well. His eyes lowered to Twilight's eye reaching out for a response. She gave him none, so he decided not to wait. "Why did you? Why did you yell at her?"

The air was like acid now. Twilight's eye went wide at his words. "You saw me yell at Starlight."

"Yeah…" He looked away. "I showed up at the tavern but didn't walk in because you were yelling."

"I didn't mean to." Twilight's hand raised the eyepatch. "It's just..."

"You could try to forgive h-"

"What?!" Twilight's eye went wide and Crimson's voice went silent. Everything seemed to stop at her interruption, even the snowflakes seemed to have stopped falling. The acidity was more like poison now though nowhere near as toxic as her voice. "SHOULD I FORGIVE MY STUDENT FOR PUTTING ME THROUGH THIS HELL?!"

Crimson's face went pale as he scooted away. "This world is like hell to you?-"

"OF COURSE IT'S IS. THIS IS NOT THE WORLD I GREW UP IN, THIS IS NOT THE WORLD I LIVED IN!"

"But-"

"My world was peace. NOT ON THE BRINK OF WAR, NOT FILLED WITH VICIOUS WENDIGOES THAT FEAST ON US OR TYRANNICAL GODS THAT WANT WAR THE SECOND THEY GET THE CHANCE!" Twilight finally stopped her yelling when she noticed herself standing over Crimson.

Crimson's arms reacted back with him and his body moved like a scared creature. He could barely keep his focus.

Seeing this all, Twilight's rage faded as she retracted herself completely, falling back into her chair. "I'm sorry... It just that you wouldn't understand." She scooted closer to him and moved her hand out away from the eyepatch and over to Crimson's hand. She puffed out some air and leaning her head toward him before facing downward.

"But she is your friend-"

"SHE IS NOT..." She stopped herself again and took in a deep breath. "I'm... I'm sorry."

"Then help me understand." He loosened his guard and even his shy voice more and returned the grip she was giving. "She isn't just your student, so show me the friendship that you share with her..."

A small icy tear tore through the eye patch as Twilight breathed heavily. "Fine, it happened two years ago, and yet two days from now." The story rolled out as her sight wandered over to the coolness of the Moon's light. It felt good but did little to hide the screams echoing in the back of her mind.

The heat of the Sun's light beated down on the morning bliss as the screams of a blue train with twisting engines damped in force as the mighty machine came to a halt at a station near the Everfree Forest.

Granny Apple and Silver Pear stepped out once the smoke from the twisting chimneys cleared. They walked over to the checkout station. They grabbed out their tickets and handed them to the clerk.

"Oh you're here to see the Everfree Forest?" the clerk clearly questioned as he punched the hole.

"Yes, has the tour already left?" Silver Pear took the tickets back and placed them in his pocket.

The clerk rubbed his head of sweat and confusion. "I don't know how to tell you this but tours have been shut down for the day due to the sighting of a wendigo."

"Really? I know it winter, but I didn't think they would ever come out during such a hot morning." Silver Pear wiped the sweat off his own head.

"Well, we will just have to go out on our own." Granny Apple huffed a little as she walked over to the entrance. The doors made a creaking sound before opening on their own.

"Ma,am it rather dangerous out there. I already told another pair of ponies it was a bad idea to go out there and they still haven't come back-" The clerk stopped his sentence when Silver Pear pulled out a massive claymore with a silver handle, bronze guard and light green blade that stretched to the ground.

"Well, it a good thing I always come prepared." Silver Pear followed after Granny Apple.

They entered the forest and Silver Pear swung his green claymore several times, cutting through tough branches as they walked. They trek through nearly a mile in until they came upon a clearing. Granny Apple held up her hand in a halting motion before the could enter through.

"What is it mom?" he questioned with a whisper as he leaned down to meet her height.

"I think I hear a cockatrice." She held her hand up to her ear as she ducked down and listen more closely.

"I don't hear anything-" He stopped and ducked for cover as a two-meter-long cockatrice walked into the opening.

"Ham, this is a good size." She pulled up her old rifle into position. "Lighttone has been asking for the sour slimy taste of cockatrice meat and there have been a few recipes I want to try for him." She lined her sight like a pro and pulled the trigger without a single breath of hesitation. Her movement gave the sign of expertise that she had gained over the many years of her former poacher life.

Birds in the nearby trees dispersed as the gunshot echoed throughout the forest. The cockatrice went down with a quick thud and very little fight.

Granny Apple got up from her hiding spot and walked over to finish the job while her son gave a light cheer. She arrived at the body and saw the blood bubbling out of the wound as it continued to slowly breathe. "You were a fine hunt." She bowed her head in honor of the creature.

She pulled out her knife to end it's pain when she suddenly stopped upon the whole forest going completely silent around them. Silver Pear noticed too but assumed it was from the gunshot.

Granny Apple held up her hand and gestured to her son to keep his guard up. She knew much better than him. They were being watched. She swung her eyes left and right without moving her head at all.

She slowly turned toward her son while continuing to scan everything around her. She gave a sigh of relief to see nothing was by him. "If not there then where? Was there more than one?" She whispered half assuming it was another cockatrice.

Her breath stopped once her eyes fell upon glowing red irises shining in the shadows a few meters to the north from the opening they had shot from.

Her heartbeat went shallow the second her mind realized it. The form of these eyes could only belong to one creature. "I know you are there. Come out now." She tried to keep her composure.

The unknown beast didn't seem to listen so she tried something else. "I heard stories of wendigoes once having normal lives like other ponies and even living in small packs of families." Playing on old stories from Lighttone she hoped to access a calming side of the beast.

"Ham, you seem to know so little yet more than most," The wendigo finally answered as he stepped out of the forest and into the opening. He stood nearly twice as tall as Silver Pear and was icy blue in color with a shredded blonde mane in ragged clothes. "How do you know of such things?"

"Yes, well, I have a customer who has been around for a very long time." She lowered her gun slightly in a show of trust. "Lighttone just loves telling stories about all kinds of things. Though he never mentioned any wendigoes knowing any of common ponies languages."

"Well, most of us don't care to speak our reasoning, our actions do that for us." He charged right at her with his long razor claws.

His movement was too fast for Silver Pear to stop him, meanwhile, Granny Apple closed her eyes. She knew from the very beginning at this range she had no time to stop the attack of a wendigo.

The wendigo edged closer, yet his great speed seems to dull. Granny Apple's own reaction speed slowed as well. Silver Pear was swinging his claymore but also seemed to reduce in movement. The leaves in the distant decreased in their descent to the ground and even the chirps of the birds had downtempo.

Soon everything came to a halt. This was not because of some sort of extreme focus, or pulsing toward death. Everything had stopped in place" Time had stopped.

A crooked old vulture landed in a tree standing over the sight. He seemed utterly untouched by the deceleration of everything. He raised his wing up to his chin and pondered aloud, "Ham, who dares trample on my domain?"

A loud bang broke his train of thought. The sound came from a crack that appeared from nowhere. The crooked old vulture flew down and landed on Granny Apple's shoulder to get a closer look at the anomaly. "Hm, it's a tear in time." The bird's narrowing soon turned into a big smile. "I see, that old wizard spell to tame my realm was a success." On that, he jumped back in the air and landed back in the tree where he was before. "Or at least it will be."

The crack burst open with a massive surge of light magic shooting outward to the sky.

All of time resumed forward and the wendigo stopped in his track and jumped back quickly in confusion. Two mares fell out of the crack and landed with a hard thud on the ground as the light magic around them slowly vanished. The mares were followed by a giant crystal table with a small brown spider holding onto it. It landed with a louder thud as it trenched itself into the ground.

Starlight grabbed her rear as it ached. "That hurt."

Meanwhile Twilight landed with more of a roll and a bit more grace. "Madness told you to roll as we landed."

"Like I had time to hear him or you while time was literally standing still," Starlight sassed back as she stood up and dusted herself off.

"What? I will not take sass from my new student," Twilight narrowed her eyes on her.

"Like I want to have you as a teacher either. Sure, that crooked old vulture gave us a mission, that doesn't mean I have to follow it."

"So you were listening," Twilight dropped her anger and snarked back.

Starlight backtracked her thoughts.

Granny Apple and the wendigo were understandably at a lost with these two mares standing between them. Luckily the old mare caught onto an idea and pulled up her old rifle. She had no time to aim properly so she closed her eyes, pulled the trigger and hoped for the best. However, there was no bang. She opened her eyes and saw ice covering the old rifle.

Twilight and Starlight saw the attack and went to Granny Apple's defense without any hesitation. Twilight grabbed out her kopises and swung out magic that made the wendigo jumped back.

As he got far from them he filled his hand with masses of ice magic and touched the ground, quickly covering it in a sheet of ice. Seeing the ice head toward them, Starlight jumped in front of Twilight and filled her horn with magic, shooting it outward towards the ground stopping the movement in it tracks.

The wendigo winced his eyes at them upon being stopped. He held out his hand and formed shards over his claws and quickly jump right at them.

Starlight pulled up her arms in defense and hope for the best as she was currently unarmed. The attack was stopped with the sounds of ice on metal. Starlight looked up to see the wendigo's attack was stopped in midair as Silver Pear stepped in quickly enough to catch the monster's claws with his claymore.

"Hey, thanks." Starlight smirked to the stallion standing just mere inches in front of her.

"No problem Lovely." He pushed the wendigo back with one hand.

"What did you just CALL ME?!" Starlight shrieked at the soft touch on her rear.

Silver Pear pulled his hand away and gave Starlight a slight wink. "Well, I don't know your name yet, so Lovely will have to do."

"Not now son." Granny Apple raised her hand to her face.

Starlight didn't know how to react to Silver Pear's actions. The only thing that came to her mind was hiding her blush.

"Well,- Look out!" Her blush instantly vanished as she saw the wendigo lunge back in.

Silver Pear swung forward but a little too slow as the wendigo's teeth struck into his arm and bit down hard. Ice quickly spread out from the monster's teeth.

Seeing no other choice Twilight pulled out her wings and quickly flew over all of them, leaving most of them in shock to find that she was an alicorn. She span as she flew and tore one of her kopises into the wendigo's back.

The wendigo winced in pain and let go of Silver Pear. Twilight then pulled her kopises free and flipped backward landing just between them.

The wendigo jumped forward with rage burning in his eyes. Twilight went to meet his attack. The clashing magics sent out a small shockwave. The earth ponies looked on in awe while Starlight only smiled at her teacher's power. The blasts of magic were at a standstill, yet with the little knowledge Twilight had against this new enemy let alone wendigoes, her magic seemed to be enough to hold the beast at bay.

The crooked old vulture watched the battle with intrigue. He had no reason to be there any longer since his domain was no longer being trampled on yet he felt a familiarity in the battle. "This is rare, their magics mesh so well, almost too well. This is the first time these two beings have met and yet. it's as if… Could it be?" He stopped his train of thought at the sight of something bubbling forth in Twilight's eyes.

The clash finally broke with another shockwave that sent both of them back. Twilight gave little reaction to the wave and stood strong with her kopises ready, aiming them back at the beast.

"Back... off from my friends." On those words the bubbling took the form of maroon smoke, it puffed out of her eyes and into the air.

"Friend... Friendship..." The wendigo twitched at the pillars and slowly moved back. "Dark... magic? Impossible?"

Twilight stopped once she realized it and tried to calm herself. The smoke reseeded and she looked toward Starlight while keeping her kopises still aimed at the wendigo. "Starlight, is the earth pony okay?"

Starlight looked over Silver Pear's wound and smile. "He'll be fine. I hope... Her horn glowed and wrapped it in her magic. Her eyes went to Twilight. "Looks like it might be- Wait Twilight look out!"

Twilight turned too slowly as the wendigo rushed forward with his claws and sliced at her left eye. The alicorn's screams filled the air as she fell to the side. The wendigo jumped toward Starlight now that things were in the clear.

However, before it could get to her, Silver Pear dropped his claymore into his free hand and rushed forward, cutting off the wendigo's right arm.

Starlight moved on instinct as she turned and jumped right up, punching the wendigo in the gut. Black and white magic pulsed outward from her fist and launched the wendigo high into the air to where he landed back in the forest.

Silver Pear fell to the ground as the pain became to much.

"What is happening to them?" Granny Apple ran over to her son.

Starlight turned back around and looked to Silver Pear and then to Twilight. Her jaw dropped at the sight of black ice forming on their wounds.

"Oh no, oh no," Her face went white. "That damn monster used a form of powerful ice magic on them." She pointed to the quickly darkening skin. "This is a major problem"

"What? How?"

Starlight's eyes strained, "I only have a limited time before those wounds become unrepairable." She looked back and forth between the wounds of Twilight and Silver Pear. The black ice on Silver Pear was moving much faster than the black ice on Twilight. "I... I... can't save them both." A tear bubbled in her sight.

Granny Apple stopped and looked back and forth between her son and Twilight. "You mean... but my son-"

"Your son won't be losing his arm." Starlight winced away from the tear and enveloped Silver Pear's wound in an indigo blue magic. She winced her eyes harder at the sound of Twilight screams getting louder. "I'm sorry Twilight. I know you would do the same."

"Careful, Lo…" Silver Pear winced in pain.

"The name is Starlight!" Her hands squeezed down on the wound as she continued to do her best to heal and get past the screams behind her.

The screams... The screams...

* * *

The screams did little to fade in Starlight's mind as she wandered around the tavern's tables. No matter how much they would blister through the head the sounds would not hinder at all.

Before they were always at the back of her mind hidden under daily work and training, even when pondering the coming anniversary they were just minor pebbles bouncing around her head. Now though they were loud as that day was, raging through her mind and every part of her thoughts.

"Damn it." She stopped cleaning and lowered her head. She slammed her hand on the table. "Why did I think I could make things better?"

"You can change what happened." Granny Apple gripped Starlight's hand. "All you can do is keep moving."

"But… But…" The tears stopped Starlight from getting any words out.

"Don't," Granny Apple placed her hand over the unicorn's mouth. "Life will find a way. Time will move forward."

"How?" Starlight pulled away. "War is on the horizon. Soon there won't be time for sorry and forgiveness."

"Really? You want that?"

"Of course?" Starlight looked back at her questioning tone.

"Oh, you poor mare. Twilight isn't looking for a sorry." Granny Apple placed her hand of Starlight's cheek and wiped away a tear. "No teacher ever want to hear you tell them such a thing."

"What are talking about?"

"You can't simply tell a teacher your sorry. They want you to commit to that forgiveness." Granny Apple pulled Starlight into a soft hug.

"How? Why?"

"Why? Because earning their forgiveness through your own actions shows that you can grow… even when they're not there." She pulled out of the hug and kissed Starlight's forehead. "And as to how? That you have to figure out on your own."

"Thank you."

Granny Apple grabbed the rag and went over to the sink. "Now, the day is off, you should be getting some sleep."

"Okay, I'll go to bed soon."

"Okay, good night." Granny Apple took her to leave.

The tavern quickly went quietly with only the lone unicorn there. Starlight look over to the window. The sight of the trees showed that the winds were finally clearing.

Though her tears had finally faded as well, the echoes kept her sad face in form despite hours passing since her teacher's outburst. She took Granny Apple's words to heart along with her teacher's words. All those words swimming through her head, hoping that this within them she would find a way to dampen the screams.

All she could do now was wait and hope she could fix things. Once more...

The screams continued... louder and louder...

* * *

The screams of the engine buzzed aloud. The echoes bounced around the navy blue airship as it flew through the sky. Inside the sounds were less noticeable when compared to the soft chimes of metal bells swaying to the movement. The inside was a wash of green and gold metals with blue lights near the tops of the wall and just only a few feet from each other.

At the front of the navy blue airship, Fredricson was at the controls surrounded by many black buttons and levers. In his hands was the wheel which he turned ever so often. In the room behind the front Lady Cat was barely putting Adagio Dazzle to bed. Though most of the bedrooms were near the back of the ship Adagio wanted to sleep near the front so she could see the Sun rising in the morning.

The rest were in the large living meeting area to the middle of the navy blue airship. The meeting area was seven meters by six meters and had a lush navy blue carpet and two rectangular green steel tables that were one by one and a half meters on the sides and one round gold table that was at least two full meters in diameter. Each table had a set amount of chairs with them, with the green tables having four chairs each and the roundtable having six chairs.

Not much of the sounds from either the engines or the bells reached passed the sounds of ceramic hitting glass as chess pieces on one table moved back and forth.

Clover wavered her hands on her black pieces with slow yet jagged movements. Starswirl, however, moved his pieces with a fast yet methodical paste.

Rex at the same time was on the other side of the room trying to read the map. He traced his fingers over a few words. "yjb ealaa almar' albahth lileuthur eal.. Ealla." He backtracked his fingers. "albath laliuthur eale- Damn it!" He slammed his hand down.

"Still having a hard time reading it." Clover's eyes wandered over to Rex for only a moment before turning back to the game.

"Darn those, Limbs of the Broken One." Rex stretched back in his chair. "Why did they have to write in that language?"

"Because it is the Broken One's language and the language of the dark alicorns," Starswirl answered Rex's question without looking once away from the board. "And because of that only dark magic users can read it."

"Maybe we could get Cold Blue to read it?" Clover smiled at the frown from Rex that was just out of her sight. "I hear he is just as brilliant as you at dark-"

"I will not let that siren aboard this ship." Rex huffed. "Besides one siren is enough on this ship, even if it's merely a filly."

"You can't make a rule like that. He can't make a rule like that." Clover looked at Starswirl moved another chess piece and smirked almost evilly. "And check."

"Hmm," Starswirl raised both his eyebrows to her words before moving a piece of his own. "Checkmate."

Clover's eyes shot open and her jaw dropped. "Wait... Again?!" She leaned over the board and scanned over each piece repeatedly. "But, but... How?"

"This time it was your hesitation that insured my victory." Starswirl's horn glowed and the pieces moved back to their original spots.

"Darn it. You beat me again master." Clover moved back.

"Do you wish to go for another round?"

"Nah, forty-two losses today is enough" she tilted her head and smiled toward Rex. "I'm going to see if I can help him out."

"Okay, I guess I will be in the library." Starswirl lifted his left hand into the air and snapped his fingers. He vanished in a puff of pink clouds.

Clover laughed and took a bit of the pink cloud in her hand before all of it could completely disperse. She put part of the pink cloud in her mouth and bit down, munching on the sweet fluff as she walked over to Rex.

She looked to Rex's monotone demeanor as his hands were the only thing holding his head up now. Leaning down she wrapped a free arm around his shoulder and brought some of the pink clouds over to his face with the other arm. "Mind if we trade?"

"You know I'm not a fan of cotton candy."

"Oh come on. I think Master is getting better at this. This one almost tastes like chocolate milk." Clover leaned in closer to the back of Rex's head.

"Fine…" Rex leaned over and took a bite. "Hmm, it kind of does taste like chocolate milk."

Clover grabbed the map and brought it over and she leaned her face over Rex's shoulder. "yib elem alma, alba."

"Not quite." Rex's smirked, veered his sight toward her and leaned his head toward her's. "It's yjb ealaa almar' albahth, or one must search."

"Oh, I was close." Clover placed another bite of pink fluff in her mouth.

"You would be closer to reading it if you could do dark magic." Rex moved back.

"It's not my fault I don't have the blood-" She attempted to get another bite but stopped her movement and words when she saw her hand empty. Soon though she noticed where the final piece was, in Rex's mouth. She smiled at this and pushed her mouth forward to undo his thievery.

However, she stopped. Their lips were about to touch. Rex did little to stop Clover's advance but she found herself not going in for the prize. She was halted... frozen in place... Lost in her tracks.

Thoughts of Mon's death filled her mind. This was followed by other battles and mission they had had before all of this. Finally, her mind went onto the words Rex said to her in the cathedral.

Before anymore movement could be made Rex vanished into his shadow and reappear over by the door. "It's getting late, you should get some sleep."

Clover held in her pouting until Rex was out of sight. She wasn't annoyed at him, but more so herself. Her eyes wandered over to the window.

Taking in a deep breath she walked over to the window and observed the outside. The sight of Moon caught her attention as thoughts of another mare flew through her mind, "Am I right for him?"

She closed her eyes turned away from the window. She placed her head on the wall and listened to the engine firing.

The screams... The screams became more erratic...

* * *

Screams erratically echoed aloud as an argument shot back and forth between great leaders. A sole alicorn was sitting in the room with five other chairs. Though each of the other chairs were empty in front of three of them were small crystals. One for each chair and a certain color for each one. The crystals were projecting pictures of other alicorns and they were the voice barking about the room as the only alicorn physically there could only hold her head down and hoped the screams would soften soon.

"Indigo is a menace. He needs to be dealt with first," speaking out of the image being projected from pink crystal, a white alicorn mare with a pink mane stood stern in her beliefs of what needed to be done.

"Oh, sure give concern to him, sister." From a blue crystal, the image of a light blue alicorn mare snarked back at the white alicorn mare, "War on our doorstep."

"We could always negotiate," posed the image of a pink alicorn stallion with a golden mane projecting from a bronze colored crystal.

"I'm not here to listen to your politics, Golden Williams." The light blue alicorn mare openly mocked him as she turned away.

"Don't be like that Luna," the white alicorn mare spoke more softly.

"Celestia is right." Finally, the only one who had not spoken throughout the entire argument stood up and made her voice known.

The other three stopped their words and came to attention, especially when her mane flew around them like a fog. A silver fog mane belonging to none other than Topaz Silk herself. "We are the Order of One, we have to handle this carefully. We have helped the mortals from afar for many years. I'm certain if we take things slow we can ascertain the connection between the strange possibility of my brother declaring war around the same time as this self-proclaimed Indigo Frost making his own moves."

"Maybe it would be helpful if your husband was here-" Luna huffed at the older alicorn.

"You know very well that Lord Red is far too busy at this time of the year." Celestia interrupted.

"No, maybe we should hear from some help of Redst-"

"Okay, okay. Enough." Topaz Silk finally let loose some magic and silence their bickering. "Sorry, we need to look at the problem at hand. The mortals are still very young. They still have many things to learn. These actions-"

"Yes, but have you learned nothing from watching the mortals all these years? We have as much to learn from them as they do of us." A unique tone of voice interrupted the alicorn, a voice filled with raw strictness and eloquence that they all knew too well.

"Wait, I know that voice?" Topaz Silk traced his eyes over every part of the room to find the source but found that the voice belonged to nopony there. Suddenly a turquoise colored crystal floated into sight.

"Wait, that's my brother's crystal." Golden Williams smirked.

"Yes, but Lord Blood Diamond is shamefully too preoccupied to talk, so he delegated speaking to you all to me."

"Oh of course." Topaz Silk slapped her hands together in realization. "Cold Blue, I almost didn't recognize your voice. Are you back from vacation?"

"Indeed, I am. I know we don't talk much-"

"Talk much, you haven't had the chance to speak to me in over two hundred years. You're always so busy." Topaz Silk chuckled.

"My duty is boundless as is my loyalty to the crown. But as I was trying to say, the mortals like unicorns are not to be taken likely. Yes, they can be cruel where you are stern, yet they can also be kind in place of you... over generousness. My lord see what I see which is why he has told me to relay a message."

"Oh and what does my brother desire?" Golden Williams leaned back.

"Yes... What does our other rarely seen member want to say?" Luna retracted her rage.

"You should leave the concerns of the unicorns to him. Meanwhile let Rex continue his hunter for this fake king behind a mask of bones. Starswirl will continue his search for the remaining siren sisters. And..." The turquoise crystal floated over to one of the images, "Luna... you shall head over to griffin kingdom."

"And what do the griffins have to do with all of this?"

"Unsure, my lord simply noticed reports of an explosion in that area and suspects it might be another fly in this web."

"But, why me?" Luna poked with a stern glare.

"I don't know his full reasoning but I suspect my lord being your former husband knows how quickly you fly off the handle."

Luna's eyes went wide and her mane darkened. "I will rip that alicorn's flesh-" Her image vanished before her words could be finished as Topaz grabbed the blue crystal in her magic, breaking the signal.

"... Okay. Does my nephew have any other ideas, besides torturing his ex?" Topaz Silk sarcastically chuckled.

"Indeed, it's never wise to prong the rage of my sister. He should already know this better than anypony." Celestia intervene. "And if indeed this explosion is connected I shall go check on the griffins. I am closer anyway."

"No, actually you would be better suited somewhere else." Topaz Silk reentered as she finally remembered something else important. "Your father wants one of you to check out the Everfree Forest."

"Again" last time nothing was found," Celestia almost pouted.

"Yes, but the anniversary of the TDH event is coming up in just two days."

"You are referring to Time Dimensional Horizon sighting aren't you?" Golden Williams interject. "I would like to accompany Celestia. As a rising master of light magic I would like to study the source should it be finally found."

"No, you need to have a talk with your father, Golden Williams. If anyone is to get answers out of that oldy brother of mine, it's his favorite son." Topaz Silk stood up and bowed to the both of them as well as the turquoise crystal as it took it's leave. Celestia and Golden Williams bowed back and their images vanished as all the crystals left the room.

The crystal made soft screams in the winds as they flew out of sight.

The screams... The soft screams...

* * *

The snow trenched ground softly screamed under the shadow of Twilight's steps as she made her way to the front door of the tavern as she walked up to it and stopped. Her breath went shallow before she reached for the door. Her mind wandered back over everything she had said to Starlight before finally wincing and letting some words loose, "Why do I have to be such a Twinannas?"

Once she felt the doorknob upon her hand she opened her eye. The inside was dark, this was no surprise since it was the middle of the night. Frankly, she was more surprised that the door was still unlocked. Maybe somepony was still up. Her eye winced once more but stopped upon her tripping. She caught herself from fall to the floor by grabbing a chair. She pulled back and she noticed somepony in the chair.

"In the middle of the dark," her whispers did little to wake the sleeping pony. She lit her horn and her eye went wide to see that it was Starlight. "Were you waiting here for me." A smile tore through her frown as she leaned over and pulled the blanket back up over Starlight. "Thank you, my little student." She pulled away and turned to the door to lock it. Turning back around she let go of her shallow breath with a deep breath followed by calming thought as she leaned against the wall. "Maybe what Crimson said was right-"

She stopped at the sounds clashing. Her eyebrows went up at it as she walked to the source. The noise had come from outside in the back area. She eye jumped as the sound echoed again. It sounded like metal clashing against metal. It was too soft to be about a fight, it sounded tactical, almost repetitive.

Another sound followed along with a slight yell. Her iris widened at that voice, "Silver Pear..."

Arriving at the back door she looked through the window to see him with his green claymore. He was swinging at the metal dummy she had set up for her and Starlight. "Is... Is he training?"

Silver Pear struck the dummy once more. Despite the cold chill in the air sweat was pouring from his face, yet this sweat wasn't from working so hard. "Ah," He grabbed his arm in pain as his green claymore fell to the ground. Pulling away he press tightly on his arm.

"It still hurts doesn't it?"

Silver Pear jumped back upon Twilight's voice. "Wow, where did you come from?"

"I just got back." Twilight looked down as she walked closer. She placed her hand on the old spot, rubbing it lightly. After a moment she pulled away and raised her hand to her eyepatch. "How much does it hurt?"

"What? It doesn't hurt at all." Silver Pear spoke with more sweat than before.

Twilight huffed, "You are as much as a terrible liar then Applejack."

"Who?" Silver Pear looked to her words with utter confusion.

"Oh, nopony special." Twilight tried to hide her mess up with a small chuckle. She back away and leaned down and picked up his green claymore before handing it back to him. "Look, the pain won't go away by you ignoring it."

"Would you rather I hide my rage instead?" Silver Pear took the claymore back and moved over to the dummy for another strike.

"What? I don't hide my rage..." Twilight raised her hand up to the eyepatch. "It just…"

"I ignore it because I don't hold a grudge," Silver Pear narrowed his eyes.

"I... I see." Twilight moved back more. "Look, I don't resent Starlight for what she did."

"Well, you certainly act like that sometimes." He swung once more.

Twilight was about to answer him back but was stopped by his sneers of pain. "I... I'm sorry, we brought this pain on you."

"And that's where you are wrong again." Silver Pear stopped and held the claymore toward the ground. He looked up to the Moon, "Pains we constantly suffer are pains brought on purely by ourselves."

"What?" Confusion made Twilight lift her head to him.

"It something more brother Gole would often say." Silver Pear lifted his claymore once more and aimed it right at Twilight. "I placed this wound upon my arm when I fought that wendigo. Just as You placed that wound upon your eye when you fought it as well."

Twilight closed her eye and raised her hand up to the blade of the claymore. "Crimson was right. You and he are both right."

"What?" Silver Pear lowered the claymore.

"I just got finished talking to Crimson before getting here." Twilight turned away. "He said I should forgive Starlight for what happened and you say I shouldn't holding be any grudge for something that was... essentially my fault." Twilight gritted her teeth and hugged her shoulders upward.

"Yeah, Sounds like him." Silver Pear pulled the claymore back completely.

"You sound like you know him more than I do." Twilight halfway chuckled.

"Well, would you believe me if I told you me and him use to date."

Twilight's ear perched up at that and she turned back around slowly. "I had no idea he went that way."

"Well, not completely." Silver Pear half chuckled. "He never slept with me, if that is what you are asking."

Twilight's face went pale. "No I wasn't asking that," she deadpanned.

Silver Pear laughed, "Well, it was more like he need somepony to comforted him."

"Really?" Twilight's deadpan vanished. "Huh, I didn't realize he was like that."

"Yeah, he really is not that shy, he just always felt so uneasy in this village." Silver Pear looked to the ground for a moment before looking back at the dummy. "He never told me why."

"Hmm, I didn't know." Twilight raised her hand to her chin. "I guess I never got to know him."

Silver Pear turned back to her and smirked. "But enough of that. You need to get some rest if you want to be up early enough to make Starlight some breakfast."

His words completely threw off Twilight. "... Wait, What?! I can't cook. And why would I do that?"

"So you have a reason to ask for her forgiveness." Silver Pear threw his claymore over his shoulder and walked to the door. "Besides it's getting late for me too."

"Wait, I can't cook," Twilight repeated as she tried to stop him from leaving.

"That's why you need to wake up early." Silver Pear opened the door and walked inside.

"Wait, can't I do something else." Twilight ran to the door.

"Hmm, maybe?" Silver Pear let go of the door and stepped inside.

"Silver Pear!" Twilight barely caught the door in the air. She walked inside and let go of the door herself as she chased after him. Her whimpering screams at him only dampened by the closing of the door.

The Screams… The whimpering screams...

* * *

Whimpered screams surrounded the lands far south. The desert terrain was now covered in thousands of crystal rods. These defiant objects were caked in blood and rotting flesh. Outside of the whimpering screams was a deathly silence.

In the center of this tortured forest were three creatures: a tall calm alicorn with red fur that shined like a diamond, a dark blue stern siren and beaten weak zebra.

The dark blue siren placed down the gem and took a step back as the gem return to the red alicorn. "Are you sure this is what you desire, Lord Blood Diamond?"

"Yes, though we often side with the mortals, a command is still a command. You must be ready not matter what it may be Cold," Blood Diamond took back the gem.

"Of course..." Cold Blue narrowed his eyes away from the prince.

"Now where were we?" Blood Diamond held out his arm blade toward the throat of the zebra. "That's right. Ogun was telling us how his magic works."

"Never, I will never."

Blood Diamond cleared his throat, "Let's us clear our words. You have been telling us from the very beginning through your actions rather than words." On that, he held out the cobra. "Though the powder was probably the harder part to figure out."

Ogun smiled at his words. "Ha, you know nothing about my magic!"

Blood Diamond only gave a smile, "Your powder is made of alligator pepper, kola nuts, palm wine and red palm oil. A very interesting concoction." His words left the zebra in utter lose of thought. "But that wouldn't be enough. In truth the real magic comes from this cobra." turquoise magic covered the cobra before quickly rip open revealing it's entire inside to be maroon red. "Hmm, dark magic liquid, where did you get this rare item?"

"Never," Pulling on all of his strength the zebra lifted his blade upward. Despite the blood pouring out of his wounds like a river, he refused to quit moving.

Cold Blue raised his hand up to stop him, but Blood Diamond halted his ally's movement. "You are never going to tell us, are you?" Blood Diamond backed up and narrowed his eyes on Ogun's.

The zebra's eyes were unflinching and undaunting. They gave a form a strength Blood Diamond could only admire. Had this zebra been aligned with the prince he would have met a much kinder fate.

Blood Diamond retracted his arm blades much to Cold Blue shock and leaned in closer. Boldness in his movement the prince placed his hands the hilt of zebra's sword. "Fine... END IT!"

Ogun turned his blade back down and stabbed it right through his own throat. He fell to the ground and his body jolted a few times.

"Hmm, we almost wondered if he had the guts to do it." Blood Diamond retracted his arms and threw the cobra to the ground.

He turned back to Cold Blue and gave little care to the fear the siren has for his master. He walked ahead of the siren and few feet before stopping. "Cold Blue?"

"What is it?" Cold Blue cut to attention.

"We do believe we have beaten our father's record of criminals slaughter in a single day." He looked over all the corpses. "Hmm, counting the ones here with the ones from this morning makes the count five hundred and thirty-two."

Cold Blue, eyes widened. "You're right. That's five more than your father current record."

"Good, that's one thing out of the way." He was about to take a step to leave before holding his hand up when an idea flew forth. "Speaking of father, he has never been the kind of creature to be so openly about his plans." He turned back around. "Cold, the places that received the message."

"Them? It seems the message was only delivered to one place. And from there spread like wildfire."

"Hmm, that is very strange. What is the name of this lone place?"

"Hmm," Cold Blue pulled out the report. "Hmm, it seems the town is called Gelum Voce Pia,"

"Of, a rare language… The language of the wendigoes if we are not mistaken."

"The wendigoes… I didn't know they had a language."

"They do, long forgotten by most, but indeed they do. The name means 'the Sweet Angel'."

"The… Sweet Angel…"

"Indeed," Blood Diamond turned around, "Cold, we want you to go there and find out why father would ever consider that place so important." On that, a gem flew out of his sleeve and to Cold Blue. "This should make your travel a bit more easier."

"Thank you, Lord Blood Diamond." Cold Blue took the gem in his hand. The gem shined brightly over everything before vanishing with Cold Blue in tow.

Blood Diamond took a deep breath once his subordinate was gone. WIth the screams of the zebra's dying breaths, the only sounds around him now. He let go of his smile and looked over them all. He looked deep into the terror and the rage they had in their eyes.

He turned back and looked to Ogun. Though the twitching had long ended the body was far from getting pale. Blood Diamond walked over and placed his hand of the zebra's face, brushing the piece of mane out of the way until the face could be seen clearly. "Such loyalty, indeed such loyal beings should go to meet with Saturn with grace. Don't ever hide your face from the reaper's hand. And never look away from the ones you send his way."

The zebra gave what strength he could to smile at the alicorn's words. Blood Diamond smiled back at the paleness growing on the zebra's face. "That's better. Greet him with joy, joy as if a son meeting his father for the first time."

With the place finally going silent Blood Diamond let go of Ogun and waved his hands out the field and the crystals slowly lowered themselves back into the ground, forming graves over each corpse.

Blood Diamond's eyes changed color and form as his voice took on a different tone."The joy that your journey has finally ended… and the joy that a new journey has just begun…"

* * *

Okay, for the ones that don't know this is the winter finale. This story will be taking a break during the winter and return back in March. Think of it sort of like the local TV channels taking a break. This will give me more room to catch and get ahead of you all. The same thing will happen in the summer. This is how things will handle every year. WIth a Winter Finale in the center of the season and a Summer Finale at the end of the season.

More details on this will be given in my New Year Blog. For the ones that don't follow me on Fimfiction, check my Twitter page to know when that blog will go up.

This won't mean that you won't be getting any more stuff from this story's world. During the breaks I will be posting for a side story based on the same world. This short style story will get a chapter every week during the break, that's right every week. More details on that in the New Year Blog.

Don't forget to comment, like or follow. Whichever you think is best. To get update ahead on posting follow me on [url= /Gryphonstar5678]Twitter[/url].


	7. Chapter 6: For A Friend

The morning cooed with the noises of a rooster. The reverberations tore through the tavern following the sunlight to Starlight's face. Her nose twitched at the beam and her horn glowed to close the blinds without her needing to even open a single eye. The room wasn't filled with much of a mess then Twilight's room. even the blanket was perfectly folded around her form. She always kept her room cleaner than most.

"Oh... her nose is so cute." A soft male voice cracked through the rooster's now damping voice.

"Shut up, she will hear us." An annoyed female voice interrupted the male voice.

"Twi... Teacher... I'm too tired... for training..." Starlight mumbled as her body moved.

The female voice went silent and giggles of the male voice followed. Starlight turned at that sound; moving her hand free from the blanket and over her eyelids to block out the light despite the fact that the shine was already gone.

The giggles faded with a slapping sound.

Silence followed as Starlight's eyes timidly opened. Instantly she jumped at the sight of Silver Pear and Twilight standing in her room. "..." Despite being fully covered still, she pulled her blanket as close to her body as possible and sat up. "What's... going on here?!" Her voice was slow at first but quickly rose in an annoyed rage.

"Twilight tried to make you breakfast." Silver Pear smiled as he took a step back. Quickly to hold his hand back from grabbing after a certain prize.

"I did?" Twilight almost forgot about the tray in her magical grasp until a nudge from Silver Pear changed that. "Oh yeah, I did." She lost her breath for a second and hesitantly placed the tray of food on the bed.

Starlight raised an eyebrow at this gesture. The tray had a bowl of cereal, an apple, and juice. It seemed rather pleasing to see especially from her teacher. However, her nose twitched and her eyes watered at the stink. It quickly became apparent the choice of kindness was probably not the best choice available.

Despite the look of the tray's contents, it was very clear that almost all the meal was slightly burnt. This shouldn't have been surprising to Starlight in the least since usually all of Twilight's cooking was completely burnt beyond repair. This was the main reason when cooking was needed in the tavern it was best to leave it to Starlight or Silver Pear.

Starlight had hope though that this sign of generosity there would of have been a bit more thought behind it. "Oh... thank you. It looks delicious." Starlight did her to keep a happy face as she brought a blacken apple to her mouth.

Twilight's face fell flat. "I know, I know. You don't have to eat it."

"Really?" Starlight looked confused to her words. "No, you worked really hard on this." She took her bite only to quickly seal her mouth up in her best attempts to keep the contents down and prevent bile from rising up. "Mmm... good."

"Sometimes you are a worse liar than Silver here. Besides, it was his idea." Twilight deadpanned as she pointed to the stallion in the room.

"Hey don't pull me into this, I'm the one who told you that you didn't need to roast the apple, especially with those kinds of spices." Silver Pear held up his hands in distress.

"Don't worry this wasn't the only idea for an apology."

"Oh thank goodness." Starlight felt a sigh of relief fall over her as she put the apple down and got up. "Wait, an apology-" she was stopped as the bile rose back up and she disappeared in a poof of black and white smoke, presumably to the bathroom.

Silver Pear tried his best to hold back his laughter and Twilight facepalmed.

"Don't worry, it will make sense later." Twilight let loose a smile. "Just get downstairs as soon as possible." She turned toward the door and went to open it, but stopped. Realizing the missing stallion that was supposed to behind her this whole time she quickly turned back around with annoyance.

The stallion's arm was slowly wondering over to the bathroom. "Just one touch- Ahh!" The stallion's libido was quickly shot down as Twilight twisted his arm toward the door.

"Come on, handypony. There is plenty of assets we need to get to back downstairs. Did you forget today is Monday?" The alicorn dragged him out of the room.

"Nooo, I don't like Mondays," He pouted as the sight of Starlight rear vanished from him.

"Nopony likes Mondays, that's true in the past as well as the future, my friend."

With the door closed, Starlight was now alone, still in the bathroom. Well, her room itself wasn't completely empty of occupants. Sitting in a cage beside a window was an all too familiar brown spider. Gáidaros stretched out of his cave at the sounds of the flushing. The brown spider looked around before walking over to a web.

On the web was a fly that was perfectly tied into place to ensure no escape. Not remembering catching it last night Gáidaros crawled right over and snatched it. He smiled at the scent of Twilight, happy to know that she also took time to apologize to him as well. The brown spider brought the insect over and dug his fangs in sucking up the juices. As he ate his breakfast his eyes wandered over to the rising Sun in the distance.

"Though I'm not a fan of light and all its 'glory'," a voice spoke up from around the brown spider. Despite his mouth full, the voice was not hindered at all. "I can say with what good in my heart that this is indeed a beautiful morning… I will miss these kinds of mornings."

The brown spider's eyes wandered down the window to the road below. He continued to eat while watching the creatures of the town wake and walk through this pleasing morning.

* * *

Through those slowly growing crowds was many words being spoken. From the large mass talking about the coming war to the medium amount daily grocery lists and even a small few wanting an early cider, begging for the Wolf's Apple to finally open. Among those small few was Rainbow Dartz.

The stallion could rarely get far without a good drink and unlike most Monday was his favorite day, because it meant the tavern would open once again. "Anytime now." He rubbed some drool off his five o'clock shadow. As soon as he heard movement from the tavern he reached for his pockets. "Alright, time to get my…" his hands moved erratically. "Wait, I know I brought my-"

A green blur pasted by Rainbow Dartz, nearly knocking him off his feet. "Did you lose something," a voice echoed from the green blur as it zipped around him.

"Yeah, Hermes I lost my…"

"No wait let me guess… Your hand sanitizer?"

"No… my-"

"Hold on, I know your belt!"

"I don't wear a belt. My-"

"No, your right, it's not that," the green blur couldn't hide his giggles, "Hmm, your pants?"

"What? I'm wearing my pants?! Can you even see while running that fast?"

"Not sure, though I've never crashed into anything."

"Tell that to the pedestrians…" Rainbow Dartz snarked back. Sudden a thought popped in his mind. Despite recovering from a hangover this sly drunk recognized just what to do to get past this early morning annoyance. Holding his foot out he closed his eyes and waited for it…

"Hmm, Oh I know you lost your wallet-" The green blur's voice was cut off as he tripped hit face first into the wall.

"Yes… I lost my wallet, now how about you use that speed of your's to go back to my place? I need somepony to pick it up so I don't lose my spot in line."

"Line?" Hermes span his head around in a blur of movement. Much to the dark blue pegasus's complaint, there wasn't much of a line at all, but still, the point was noted to the green griffin.

"Oh, you want to buy something in the old tavern." A new voice spoke up. It was filled with an honest grain that Rainbow Dartz took as an almost familiarity. Though he was really too busy to care who it was... as long as it wasn't an ex asking for alimony.

In the end, though he did turn to see the owner of the voice... just in case. The voice belonged to a rather foggy red stallion in a ragged of clothing standing just over his own height. The foggy red stallion's face couldn't be seen as he wore a thick hood.

"And who might you be?" Rainbow Dartz raised an eyebrow and took a strong step forward. Determination to keep his spot in line filled his mind more than any questions on who this might be.

"That doesn't matter, is the price is still the same after all these years?" The foggy red stallion smiled at the dark blue pegasus' nod. "Good this should cover it."

Before Rainbow Dartz could object the foggy red stallion took his hand and place some money in it.

"It's okay, I decided I wasn't going in anyway." The foggy red stallion walked off.

"Who was the that?" Hermes scratched his head as Red Steel picked him off the floor.

"I don't know- Ah! Red Steel when did you get here." Rainbow Dartz jumped back.

"Silly, he was here the whole time," Hermes jumped away from Red Steel's arms and into Rainbow Dartz arms.

"... Of course, he was? Now get off me." He knocked him back to Red Steel. "You two are perfect, one is too silent to be noticed and one is too loud to crash into."

"Yea!" The green griffin threw up his arms in joy. "I love that idea. Me and Red Steel, thick as thieves. Or maybe more... " He blinked his eyes really fast at Red Steel for some reaction. The tall wall of buffalo gave a blank stare with no words as his ever always reaction. "Yeah, you're right, we should be just friends." The green griffin used his wings to push himself free and land on the ground upright. "After all Twilight says friends are better as best friends than anything more."

"That's not even close to one of her sayings about friendship."

"Speaking of friendship looks like you have expanded yours'" Hermes pointed at Rainbow Dartz hands.

"I'm not sure that how friendship works…" The dark blue pegasus looked back to his hand. "But hey, if he returns tomorrow with more money to giving me, I'll be his friend for life-" His words were cut short once he saw how much money the foggy red stallion had given him. His eyes went wide and a sourness poured over him.

Hermes leaned over and looked at the amount in his friend's hand. "... Wow, that is the exact amount for the most basic small size cup of cider, tax included."

"... no extra drink…" Rainbow Dartz finally spoke up.

Red Steel walked over as well and looked at the amount, indeed the green griffin was telling the truth. It was the exact amount of a single small glass of the most basic drink the tavern had.

Laughter poured out of both the griffin and buffalo. Their laughter echoed to the skies and back to Gáidaros who was facepalming at the actions that just happened.

* * *

The Sun's warmth tore through the thick clouds and onto the road. It cracked through almost any openings in the sky and knocked away every shadow from the night before. Twilight and Starlight could feel the light as it seemed to follow them as they went.

An assortment of different species strolled passed them without a care in the world. Griffins, sirens, donkeys, hippogriffs and ponies alike were all walking by. Though war seemed on the horizon very little would know this purely on looking at this old town alone. This place very rarely had problems and even when it did it would be settled just as quickly as it started. Though most of the time, many creatures were simply too busy to bring problems. The alicorn and her student were among the ones to cause the least problems and today was no different. Twilight looked like she was on a mission, Starlight, meanwhile, seemed bored with all this walking.

As they walked Starlight tried her best to figure out what Twilight was up to. Her teacher's recent actions made little sense. Yesterday Twilight had been raging on about the war that was most likely to break out any day, yet now it was as if none of that matter. Starlight wanted to be happy about the smile on her teacher's face, but there was something clearly hidden under it.

At the same time, Starlight's mind wanted to race back to plans she originally had for the anniversary of the event that trapped them in this timeline. It was tomorrow and everything she had thought up had been tossed to the wind with Twilight's outburst yesterday. She wondered if she could fix things. She hoped that she could make things right.

"What wrong?" Twilight's voice broke through the buzzing thoughts of the unicorn.

"N-nothing." Starlight turned her head away from Twilight. "It's just that usually you only wake me up this early so we can get extra training."

"Nah… no training today." Twilight's voice slowed and she almost went jumpy.

Starlight's eyes went wide and she started to giggle. "Wow, and I thought I was the terrible liar today." She reached over and placed her arm over Twilight's shoulder. "Come on Teach. What with the attitude change?"

"Nothing has changed…" Twilight pulled the arm off and walked forward.

Starlight deadpanned. "Okay. can you at least tell me where we are going?"

"Don't worry we will get there soon." Twilight's smile faded once her face was out of the sight of Starlight. Yes, Twilight was happy, but unbeknownst to Starlight was also feeling the poison of guilt about anything that happened yesterday. Things today needed to go perfectly.

Without warning, Twilight came to a stop. "Well, here is our first stop."

Starlight raised an eyebrow at the place they had stopped at. "A… butchery. But why here? We don't even eat meat. Plus the tavern gets it own private stock meat for those certain customers."

"I know that but that not why we are here." Twilight moved a little closer and made sure there was no dust on her clothes before knocking at the door.

There was no answer.

Starlight's mind grew with confusion. To her Twilight almost looked hesitant. "Oh, what's wrong? Why are we here?"

Twilight didn't answer, instead, she gave the door another knock. Again there was no answer. The alicorn tapped her foot twice before giving the door another knock, this time a bit louder. "Where is he?" Her voice let slip words she didn't want Starlight to hear.

"Who?" Starlight walked closer and looked directly at Twilight.

Twilight reach over again and knocked even harder. This time there was certainly distress in her mind as Starlight could see the alicorn's wings tense up behind her cloak that was always used to hide them.

A moment passed and Again… no answer came from the door.

"Okay, what is wrong?" Starlight gripped at Twilight's arm before another attempt could be made.

"…Crimson isn't answering."

"Crimson?" Starlight blinked twice. She looked back and forth between Twilight and the butchery until it finally hit her. "Wait… is this where Crimson works?"

"Of course." Twilight pulled her arm free and place her hand on the door. "You didn't know that he worked with meat?"

"No, I knew he worked with meat, just didn't know where he worked."

Twilight giggled, "Well, where else would he work?"

"Okay, that still doesn't answer why we are here."

"Well, I…" Twilight found her words wandering before finally speaking up higher. "I wanted to say sorry to him as well."

"Wait… did you yell at him too? Damn, Teach, your rage knows no bound-"

"No!" Twilight raised her voice. She was really annoyed now, sure she never liked it when Starlight refer to her as Teach as it felt insulting but Starlight was laughing even louder now. Unfortunately, she didn't realize the true reason that Starlight was laughing.

"Stop laughing. It just he helped me get something off my chest last night."

"Really?" Starlight was still skeptical. "You know that if Silver Pear was here he would ask how did he help you that some thing off your chest?" Starlight leaned inward with a devilish grin that perfectly brought a massive blush to Twilight's face.

"Me and Crimson are not like that at all. You already know I choose to not have any relationships until we return to our time."

"So, does that mean you are seeking. Or maybe Crimson can't really live up to that Flash you sometimes dream about."

Twilight's face glowed bright red and she threw up her hands into the air, "That it. If he is simply too busy then I will just leave a note." On that, she poofed up her notebook. Quickly she wrote down something and used her magic to teleport the note into the butchery where she hoped that Crimson would find it.

"That it?"

"Yeah," Twilight smiled and her blush faded into a flush of rage. "Now come on, we have work to do before we can get back to the tavern." She grabbed her student by the arm and pulled her away.

"Hmm, speaking of which. Do you think Silver Pear is handling it fine? I have my doubts." Starlight scratched her chin.

"You always seem to doubt that stallion of yours. He will be fine."

"Yeah, I guess he will…" Starlight's eyes widened. "Wait a minute, what do you mean by 'my stallion'?"

Twilight let go her student's arm and ran ahead at her questioning.

Starlight's face grew with anger. "Hey now, I see what you're saying. He, not my coltfriend."

"Oh you're allowed to bug me about with Crimson and even Flash, yet I'm not allowed to bug you about Silver Pear." Twilight giggled at her student distress.

"Exactly. Wait, I mean… There is nothing between me and him, he flirts with every mare... and stallions... and even trees. TREES!" Soon they were both laughing as they went to their next stop. "Wait a minute what was that letter about anyway?"

Twilight laughed even louder. "isn't it obvious? I inviting guests to the party."

Starlight stopped at those words. "Huh... what party?"

Twilight's movements came to a complete stopped. It was so abrupt that it caught Starlight completely off guard. As they stood still waiting for an answer a small number of snowflakes flew passed Twilight's face.

"Teacher..." Starlight spoke through the silence.

"Starlight, hmm, I decided I am going to train you today."

"Wait, what?" Starlight took up her guard. "Here, now. I don't even have my gentlemare sword-" Her words were stopped as Twilight poofed from sight.

Starlight surged her horn with magic. She swung back and forth looking for any sight of Twilight. Her mind raced on anything that would provoke this training. Yet at the same time, her thoughts were also on her teacher's words. What party was she even talking about?

Despite how long she thought no answer came to mind. All she could do now was wait for Twilight to reappear. Suddenly though she felt a heavy weight on her head. It was pushing down on her mane. She reached up only to stop once she realized there was a foot on her head.

She jumped back and Twilight landed back down. "Actually, this won't be training with swords, but words." Twilight stared at her with an evil glare.

"What do you mean words?" Starlight stared at the fact that Twilight had her hands behind her back.

Twilight caught on to her student's keen eye. She surprised, to Twilight Starlight greatest weakness was her inability to chance on to the obvious. Of course, this was indeed one of those times as Starlight still had not let go on her magic. The teacher sighed at her pupil's fault and revealed what she had. "Here, read this?"

Starlight let down her guard at the sight of a rather large purple book. She quickly caught it but was unsure as to why she was to read this. "What do you mean by 'read this'?"

"I mean actually read. This is a book on my five friends. It not my original copy as that one is still in our timeline, but it is one that made during our two years here through good old memorization." Twilight horn glowed, "Now obviously you don't have to read all of it, just chapter eighty-two."

"Okay..." Starlight raised an eyebrow at this. "Why just that chapter?"

"The chapter is called Similar Opposites and have to do mostly with my friends Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy."

"Wait, OPPOSITES! I met those two, they are practically the same. I bet if I were to blindfold myself I wouldn't be able to tell those apart at all, even by voice."

"Oh, really?" Twilight turned around and ran off. "Then that will be your training for today while we invite more guests to the party."

"Wait, what party?!" Starlight rushed after her

"Also I expect you to carry some stuff as well." Twilight laughed aloud and continued to run only this time much fast.

"Oh, come on, really?! I thought there wouldn't be any training today?!"

* * *

Loud noise tore through the tavern as the business of both work and play made itself very clear to any onlooker. Inside Silver Pear did the best he could to dodge the voices flying through… well, the male voices anyway as he didn't mind taking time out of his work to flirt with the nearest female patron, especially if they were new patrons or ones he still hadn't slept with yet. Though Starlight was often on his mind… well her rear mostly he did often make moves on others, sometimes mares, sometimes even stallions, but today his preference was mares, strangely enough the siren mares were his current targets as quite a few new ones had arrived in the town for a small pit stop before going deep into the Unicorn Providence to work in any needed jobs in fixing up any wounded that would sure to pile up in the oncoming war.

Silver Pear knew they were needed for work, but there few mares he found the most satisfying and nurses were among the high points for him. Unfortunately for him, most of the nurses he was pining for were sitting beside Red Steel. Understandably since he was the only stallion beside Silver Pear that wasn't blind stinking drunk. Silver Pear simply had to put such problems to the back of his libido and moved on with work.

Meanwhile, Granny Apple was at a thick round table playing a game of poker with Lighttone, Hermes and Rainbow Dartz. Lighttone was simply passing the time until his medium rare roasted turkey covered in pigeon leg sauce was done, Rainbow Dartz was trying his best to increase the amount of money he received in a much better amount so he could finally get properly blind stinking drunk, Hermes was completely lost in this game despite having the winning hand for the third time in a row and Granny Apple was, of course, dominating the game with confidence as always.

Indeed the place was filled with so much joy. Outside though was a different statement. The foggy red stallion from before watched from a window, making sure no one noticed him at first. His heart filled with joy but his face for what could be seen as nothing but sadness.

"Nothing changes around here," He halved chuckled. "Always joy in this place." He found strain in stopping himself from tapping his foot at the blues playing in the background.

"Silver. Not again." He laughed at the slapping sound that echoed forth through the blues. He noted the bright red mark on the green face of the earth pony as Silver Pear walked back to the kitchen. "You still keep the dream going."

After a few more minutes of watching the foggy red stallion pulled his head away and looked at the clocktower the lume over them all. "Hmm, it's almost nine, I better go find myself some breakfast."

He turned his attention to the road. However, he found himself crashing into a light blue filly. "Oh sorry."

"No its okay, it was my fault." The light blue filly looked back and forth. "I'm sorry, I was just looking for... my dog. He's big and gray."

"Hmm, sounds familiar. I guess I'll let you get back to it." He rubbed the filly's mane and went back to his business. "I hope you find him."

However, as he left the light blue filly smiled and stood still instead of looking for her doggy. "Hmm, could it be?" She stared at the foggy red stallion for longer than needed. "I think I just did."

* * *

On the other side of town, the laughter of two beings out of time filled the market area as they explored. Starlight tried her best to read through the chapter of the large purple book and her teacher's less than pleasing writing style while attempting to keep up with her teacher's mission.

Twilight was gathering supplies as they were yesterday, though, this time Starlight was caring most of the stuff. At the same time, she was inviting more to the party.

"Hmm, not this." Twilight put down the brown book with fancy writing on it.

"What?! Not that one either, but you looked at it for a solid ten minutes. Beside…" Starlight reached over to the book, "The Encyclopedia of pneu mu… pneumon oulti… pneu monoul tramicro." The fancy writing made Starlight take multiple attempts, each time being nowhere near the right answer.

Annoyed Twilight finally grabbed her student's mouth shut with magic. "The word you are looking for is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis."

Starlight poofed away the spell over her mouth. "Wait, that's a whole word! There is no way that's a real word."

"Of course it is. It is the name for an infection or disease related to the inhaling or skin absorption of dust size crystals."

"Really?" Starlight was in complete disbelief. "Does that really happen often enough to be given such a long and ridiculous name?"

"Not too often." Twilight raised her index finger, "Actually the strangest thing is today's newspaper actually reported pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis case happening yesterday night." She turned around and grabbed the book. "Hold on, this means I have to give this another read."

"Wait, another read?"

"Of course, I've actually already read this copy four hundred and eighty-two times. I need more information now though. Did you know that the recent case actually involved a group of zebras in the south?"

"Oh, joy... I'm certain you will tell me everything about this…" Starlight couldn't help but give a deadpan. In the end, she knew once Twilight went into what she referred to as 'ultra-teacher' mode there was no way to stop her from talking.

"WAIT!" Twilight stopped her train of words and halt her movement so fast that Starlight nearly crashed into her.

"Now what?"

"This isn't the Encyclopedia of Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Documentation IV Edition, this is Encyclopedia of Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Documentation V Edition." Twilight practically couldn't hide her happiness.

"And that's good how?"

"I haven't read this copy. Who knows? It may just have a report of the zebra case from yesterday."

"I highly doubt they updated it that quickly." Starlight's words fell on deaf ears as Twilight walked back to the counter.

"I would like to rent this book. I'm going to need plenty of time reading this so give me the longest amount of time you." Twilight gave more money to the thin red siren mare working the counter.

"Certainly."

"Really?" Starlight rushed back over. "Don't tell me you are going to read that one just as many times as the last one."

"Of course not." Twilight turned toward her and held the book tightly to her chest. "I'm going to read this easily three times as much, maybe even more."

Starlight gave no words for that answer, just the most blank deadpanned she could muster.

Twilight couldn't laugh back at her student, just as happy in getting a new book, but also happy that her student had learned well from her own deadpans. "Wow, that was near as epic as the deadpans as I've given Pinkie Pie."

"Puff, sure." Starlight turned away. "Can we go now, we got more stuff to do."

"Just give me a minute," Twilight wrote down and note and gave it to the thin red siren mare.

The red siren mare took the note and read it silently. "Sure, you can see me there as well."

"Thanks, Jezebel. Go ahead and invite any others that you can." Twilight took her leave. "The more, the better."

"Wait, Twilight. I couldn't help but notice you were looking for something else," Jezebel questioned.

"Yeah, I was. I was looking for a gift for a… friend. Just a friend." Twilight stomped her foot down loudly to make sure it wasn't twisting. "I just wish I could-"

"Wait," a white siren mare with a big bust beside Jezebel interrupted. "Wish! I think we have just what you need."

"What do you mean, Izabel?"

"Hold on," Izabel reached behind the counter, her ample size constantly getting in her way. "Wait, wait, I, I, got it." The mare got back up and brought out a chest with strange writing on it.

Twilight's eyes went wide. "What is this?"

"I found this in the attic at my father's old house. It some chest he refused to open. Despite that, I opened it a few times when I was younger and I was overjoyed to see this." She opened it.

Twilight's eyes glowed at the brilliant hue of a necklace with a turquoise pearl at the center of it. "Oooh. It's beautiful, but not my personal taste. Though I know a unicorn back where I'm from that would adore this."

"Take it, it's on the house."

"What?" Twilight jumped back a bit.

"You were looking for a gift and I'm certain this will work perfectly."

"Really, I'm not sure how Crimson-"

"Oh, so it's for Crimson?" Jezebel and Izabel both giggled.

"It's not like that. And besides, I doubt he is the jewelry type."

"Oh you are silly," Izabel followed in the giggling. "This isn't for wearing constantly. Just give the inscription a read."

Twilight leaned her head over the spot the white siren mare was pointing at. "Here lies the wishes of Morpheus. May the dreamer's wish always be granted." Twilight pulled the turquoise pearl necklace out and held the prize gem close to her eyes. "Wait, is this powered by some form of magic. Why would you give me such a thing?"

"Really I'm not sure about any power. All I know is my father never wanted me to touch it. So when he kicked me out yesterday I made sure to take it from him when he wasn't looking."

"Oh, to teach that cruel father of our a lesson." Jezebel bumped her shoulder against her sister's.

"Surely. Besides, if it is real I'm certain you and Crimson will find better use out of it then he ever would." Izabel reached over and caressed her hand around Twilight's chin. "Come on, you may work at a bar and he may work at a butchery, but we all see you two constantly looking at new magical stuff. You two can't hide your magical natures. I'm sure you both will get enjoyment out of studying this too."

"You think so."

"I know so."

"Come on Teach. Quit questioning and just take the gift." Starlight put down some money and pulled Twilight away to their next stop. "If we wait here all day we won't have time for this party you keep wanting."

* * *

A rush of movement failed to get the attention of Rex as he finally noticed the darkened spot of the map. "If this is like the other then that means one of the Alathar has been moved." He moved his fingers back and forth between the two darkened spots. "hna takmun raghabatin Morpheus. narju 'an yatima manh raghbat alhalim daymana." He retraced over a certain word. "Hmm, Starswirl, who is Morpheus?" He called out.

Starswirl's head appeared from a puff of cotton candy. "Hmm, if I remember correctly Morpheus is the alicorn of dreams. He forged the dreamscape itself."

"Okay, thank you. That will be all."

"Are you sure? You don't seem to notice the rush around you." Starswirl spun his head around the room.

"Yeah... sure... rush..." Rex went back to reading.

Annoyed upon realizing that Rex had already tuned him out Starswirl took his leave.

Rex traced his fingers over the writing again. "hna takmun raghabatin... hna takmun raghabatin... Here lies the wishes of Morpheus. May the dreamer-" However he was stopped in tracks at finding himself being launched away from the table. His body flew toward the wall as the ship turned to it's side. The force was quite unexpected, nevertheless, he threw out his arms. His chains shot out and grabbed the nearest table as all of them were part of the airship's body and therefore wouldn't move with him.

The same could not be said of the map as it flew passed Rex's eyes. He gritted his teeth at this and attempted to reach for it with his foot. Out of nowhere and cloud of cotton candy appeared to catch the map.

"Thank you Starswirl..." Rex puffed in annoyance.

"You're welcome, old friend." On that, the cloud vanished with the map in tow. This only brought more annoyance to the umburm as he lowered himself down to the nearest wall just the airship readjusted itself.

"Arg, sorry for the sudden stop, everyone." Fredricson's voice bell over the intercoms.

"You have terrible timing you damn pirate." Rex huffed and picked himself. It was at this moment did he notice all the movement from Clover and Lady Cat as they raced back and forth from. The two mares were unaffected by the rush of movement as they apparently saw it coming. Plus it helped that Lay Cat could fly. As for Clover though she was never the best with telekinetic magic, she did have some promise at self-levitation, though this wasn't really much experience as more as often luck.

Directions of movement from the two mares were centering around the front so it was clear to Rex they knew the focus of this interruption.

Soon he too arrived at the front and the cockpit where Fredricson was eating a sandwich. "Okay, I was in the middle of finding where the next Alathar might be. Any of you mind telling why we just suddenly stopped? And please don't say it was because the pirate here needed a sandwich."

"Arg, don't get mad at me. It the little misses that to blame." Fredricson pointed to Adagio.

"What does the filly want now?!" Rex tossed up his hands and leaned onto the door.

"Maybe you not yelling at her," Clover pushed Rex out of the way and brought over a lollipop for the siren filly.

"Really a candy?! That is all."

"I see you're always terrible with children," Lady Cat also pushed him out of the way.

"I am not!" Rex threw out his annoyance and walked over the nearest wall to lean on instead.

"Enough you four. We need to find the real purpose for the filly outburst." Starswirl pushed Rex away from the wall as he poofed out of it.

The old wizard walked over to the filly and knocked away the lollipop in Clover's hand. He leaned down to Adagio height, giving her a cup of chocolate milk instead. "So little filly can you tell us why you demanded Fredricson stop the airship."

"Wait so this filly is what stopped my work-" Rex was shushed by cotton candy stuffed into his mouth.

The orange siren filly took the chocolate milk and drank it up slowly before finally answering. "I... I sensed her."

"Who?" Starswirl snapped his fingers and the glass refilled itself.

Adagio took another drink and finished her words. "I sensed one of my sisters... I sensed Sonata Dusk."

"Hmm, where?"

She put the glass in her mouth and drank more while walking over to the nearest window. She pointed out to a town just a few miles away. "That town, the one with the clocktower."

The town ahead of them was a mix of stone and wood. The stone structures seemed to circle around toward the center where a clocktower stood.

* * *

So a new chapter is here. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to like, follow and or comment, whichever you think is best. If you want to keep up with the updates follow me on twitter. /Gryphonstar5678


	8. Chapter 7: New Arrivals

A loud slam filled the room and reverberated through every metal chair. Star Stone slowly awoke. His face was covered in sweat, yet the room was ice cold. He scanned over everything within his sight, trying his best to ascertain where he was, what happened to the others and above all where was the being called Thule?

It was a luxurious oak wooden room filled with red and blue tapestry tapering the ceiling, black cushions at the corners and all manner of animal pelts plastering the walls. All these comforts looked quite cozy, however, none of them were anywhere near him. He was stuck to a metal chair that had long lost its cold touch with a very basic and crude metal table in front of him which seemed caked in dust and grime. He looked around the table and saw five other chairs. There was a very unusual stink in the air and the room seemed devoid of sounds or at least any recent sounds out of the slamming echo which was finally fading.

The crystal pony turned to his left and saw the gray griffin sitting in one of the five chairs. "Clay Sand!" He spoke to the griffin.

The gray griffin gradually twisted in his chair. He realized what was happening and tried to pull free, yet the bars over his arms, chest, and legs made progress difficult. "Where are we? And, what is that smell?" He pulled back in revilement.

"I don't know, but a better question is why didn't he kill us?"

"Because we were told to spare you." A voice filled the room. The voice felt western in tone and was clearly that of a female yet the species couldn't be grasped by these details at alone. "He asked me to put the choice of life in your hands. In a way, the old cook's idea makes perfect sense and really it fits fine into the ideas of lord Frost."

Clay Sand looked around until he spotted a bell tone spout out from a wall in the far corner of the room, "Over there?" he pointed.

"Ideas of lord Frost? So you are not Indigo, nor Thule?"

"Oh my, I am certainly not the good lord, but I will tell him that you asked for his graces. The good king is currently busy with a few things."

"What are you then? His secretary?" Clay Sand laughed through his weakening breath.

"Well, it seems our little spy was right. You are the comedian of the group."

Her words cut through Clay Sand's laughter and spun his mind around and around. The gray griffin's rage grew in him at her words before finally giving into the same idea that Star Stone had long figured out. "What? Did one of us give in? Bring that chickenshit over here!"

"Oh my darlin, maybe you should look at who is missing from your group."

On that Star Stone and Clay Sand scanned the room again. To the left of the crystal pony was the white changeling who was still not moving, but clearly alive as her breath could be seen in the cold air. On the other side of the table were two chairs covered in darkness and one that wasn't.

The lone chair was empty and Star Stone remembered well enough that his batpony ally was very dead the last time they saw him so he reasoned that the blank chair must have originally been meant for their ally. This left the question of who was in the other chairs and who was the traitor that is if this traitor was even in the room at all as the mysterious mare heavily hinted to.

Star Stone turned to the changeling, "Sour Dream, wake up.

"Grendel Sound and Sage Brimstone, answer me," Clay Sand barked to the other chairs.

"What happened?" Sour Dream struggled in pain.

"Good news, now that all you folks are awake the game can begin." " The western mare laughed.

"What are you talking about?" Clay Sand struggled over to the table trying his best to reach the black-lit chairs. "Grendel Sound and Sage Brimstone, answer me!"

"Actually those two handsome gents were the first to wake up. And when they heard what the good Lord has planned to make you all talk…"

On that, a light brightened through the darkness and revealed the first chair.

"By the Broken One's holy name?!" Star Stone cursed aloud at the sight of it.

"Grendel Sound?" Sour Dream trembled uncontrollably.

The siren's mouth had been ripped wide open and his eyes had been torn from their sockets. His chest had been torn apart and his stomach itself laid on a plate in front of the corpse for all to see while his intestines were missing. His arms were also missing along with assumedly his legs.

Clay Sand pulled back in horror.

Star Stone noted something else that his allies did not. The stomach was perfectly cleaned and surrounded by ice like it was being preserved. There was… brown and red seasoning on it and even small fruits around it giving a certain flair to it.

"The proud siren gave up so easily. Tattling his little tongue off as fast as he could when we presented him with the choice, unfortunately, he still didn't take our offer. So we waited until the rest of you were awake before presenting you the same offer." She stopped and the sounds of chewing followed. "Actually as a doctor, I feel as though I'm lying to myself since a siren's tongue is actually the longest part of their body."

Hearing her words filled all of them with bile, except for Star Stone who only became filled with rage. Yet, his mind raced over the next question. Who was in the other chair?

"ENOUGH!" Star Stone knocked his chair around loudly in an attempt to dampen the sounds of her chewing. "We will not give in to this torturous talk. None of us betrayed each other did we?" He pointed to the other chair. "Sage is dead too?"

"What makes you say that?"

"The smell in this room is far too strong for one body, especially one so well cleaned." Star Stone noted every detail in the assumption that he was right, trying his best to ascertain a reaction from the western mare.

"Oh, wow. You are about as brilliant as a diamond in charcoal." hearing her words filled Star Stone's mind with victory. "That is if the diamond wasn't really a hallucination brought on by pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis."

"What?" The rather large word brought great confusion to them.

"Really, you never heard of such a word. What are creatures learning nowadays? There was a new issue on this disease published yesterday. Though I wish it had included the details on an incident happened to some zebras in the south that also happened that night, I would love to know more about that."

All three of the hostages were at a complete loss as to why the western mare brought this up. However, this knowledge did bring more hints to Star Stone's mind. To him, this mare either was an incredibly thick bookworm with too much time on her hands or a creature that needed such knowledge on standby. 'She said she was a doctor so maybe, but that such a rare disease you only need to study if you… were living near or in volcanic areas.' He smiled at all the facts coming together. "Enough of this." He finally spoke aloud. "Go ahead and show us that the other chair is empty."

"It is?! It wasn't empty when Thule was in there."

"What are you talking about?" Clay Sand questioned his friend.

"Of course I know it's empty just as I know who the traitor is." Star Stone confirmed.

"Oh, and how would you know that?" The western mare twisted her words.

"Because of who you are. You are Vanity Claymore the sister of Sanity Claymore, the ifrit who was killed by Rex that sparked the debate that brought all of us into the same place so the traitor Sage could lead Thule to us."

"... oh, you're good. Sage was right about you. But unfortunately, he's not in the room with you." On that, the final light revealed the truth. In the final chair was a decaying slap of bones and thinly held together flesh. One distinct feature could be made out of the mess and that was the large hole in the ribcage. It wasn't sure at first, who this corpse was but it certainly wasn't Sage. The bone structure alone didn't match that of an ifrit in the slightest.

"That's what the smell was!" Clay Sand riled back at the sight of the source.

"Sorry, I didn't have time to stitch up the batpony before ingredients were removed."

"So, Draken didn't make it after all." Star Stone sneered at the corpse and turned toward the speaker. Though his assumption was wrong he had to keep a good composure around the others. "Look it doesn't matter what you do to us we won't talk," Star Stone assured his confidence with looks from the others. Clay Sand smirked an obvious yes, while Sour Dream though still shook up nodded a slow yes as well. "There you see."

"No, I can't. Its a speaker feed nothing else. Thule is watching you from somewhere in the room, but that octopus doesn't talk to me that much so he couldn't tell me anyway." Vanity snapped her fingers. "Either way, you will talk."

Tentacles descended down from the darkness above with covered steel plates in tow. "Just give yourself some time to think. Meanwhile, I'll get to the real reason you are all here."

"And that is?"

"The offer. Frost wants your monstrous side to come out." On that, the covers were lifted back up to the ceiling and the contents were revealed. "Behold a delicious meal for you to enjoy."

All of them were at a complete loss to this. They had no idea how to even react to such a suggestion. Sure the meat was cleaned perfect and even finely prepared with all kinds of seasoning, there was even a collage of vegetables on the plate as well. Really the meal looked expertly made as if by the finest chef in the land... however the meat was none other then the very missing 'ingredients' from their batpony ally.

"What is this?!" Sour Dream finally gave a response.

"Why it's dinner made from Draken Fast. I wish I could see it now, the smell was quite incredible while our butcher was making it. I'm only a doctor so seeing such things being made is a rarity."

"We would never do such a thing. Why are you doing this to us?" Star Stone struggled away from it.

"You aren't listening, are you? Look around you and look in front of you. Take the advice of a professional doctor who has had years of experience dealing with the dead or near dead, ranging each of your species limits on starvation and dehydration, it will take five days at least for the first of you to decay from the inside and show the signs of malnourishment. So Frost's 'torture' will be simple. You either give Thule the coordinates to each of your alathar and get a quick and cowardly death like your siren and batpony compatriot, or you eventually eat this delicious meal in front of you and see things a new way, our way, and finally give in to our demands, willingly. Doing the last choice will guarantee no death at all and even your freedom will be granted without any hesitation."

"What if we let ourselves die?" Star Stone smirked in victory. He was quick to spout his words because he had dealt with seemingly worst problems before, being a former member of his species black op core. He had seen torture first hand and to him, this seemed poor.

"Really?" Thule's voice poured over the room and tore at Star Stone's bravado. "You are being more unnecessary then you need to be." Tentacles rose from the chairs and crawled over their bodies. "Let me hint you in on one thing that I learned in my billions of years of life." The tentacles wrapped tightly around their throats. "All creatures have one strong urge in common. Something that will never separate them and will tear through every part of their soul... always." The tentacles stopped just before cutting off circulation and instead traveled to their mouths, gripping at their lips, almost like a demand to be let in. "It something all creatures no matter what morality, race, religion, personal history or even mortality can ignore. It's the one thing that holds his plan in place and why it will never fail." Finally, the tentacles forced their mouths open and pulled their heads over the meat. It held them in place and refused to move no matter how they much struggled.

"Survival!" A new voice spoke aloud over the speaker. It was so icy that even the old warmth of their chairs seemed to vanish and fill their whole body with an unbearably painful chill that far colder than the outer air and struck through to the center of their souls.

Vanity took her chance to finally retake command of all this. "Look around you all once more. This place is devoid of everything needed for survival. There is no water, no food or nutrients except what lies in front of you. In five days you will be malnourished and ten days your body will do what even you seemed to be currently refusing. Eat, that is inevitable."

"It's only a matter of time." Thule's tentacles pulled tighter.

All of them twisted and shook in their chairs as static filled the speaker. Emptiness followed filling the air with dread and fear and eventually but most important of all…

Among them despite how much they wanted to deny it's existence and the victory of the icy words spoken. They could only fight it for so long…

Soon the hunger would arrive.

In a cold room with many windows and leather chairs sat Vanity and Sage. The two were at a table with nine cozy chairs that ideally gripped around the users and empty plates gleaming with clear and clean light, one per chair. Each plate had fine utensils laying with them perfectly placed in such a way to give the form of elegance above all else.

Laughing again Vanity leaned her head back. Dropping the last bite of the siren's tongue right into her flaming jaws she lamented in its unique taste was somewhat akin to that of a meaty piece of fat. With a few chews and a swallow, the piece was gone. She lowered her head and looked to her left. "Now, where were we? It Sage Brimstone isn't it?"

"Yes, ma'am." the white ifrit shrunk into a chair beside Vanity.

"Well, as you heard from your former compatriot I am Vanity Claymore." All her actions just sent an ever-growing chill through his whole body. How could a beautiful mare do such vicious things?

Yes, beauty was one thing he couldn't deny. Vanity stood nearly half a foot taller than him. She wore a pure white lab coat over a pink skirt that perfectly cupped her small chest and shirt combo with magenta jeans that curved so tightly around her long slender legs.

"Oh, don't stare, I might think you have your eyes on other plans." Her words pulled him from his thoughts.

"I... I'm sorry." He turned back to the empty plate in front of him.

"Nah, why should I care? Its a common form of survival to find the opposite gender appealing." She winked at him.

Sage was about to apologize when the creaking of the fancy door at the other side of the room stopped him. A purple aura flowed over and pushed it open. Two ponies walked through and over to the table. A short black earth pony and a dark lavender unicorn with a chef's hat. The two brought forth a group of eight metal plates with covers over them.

"Oh, Carnival, it's good to see you. How went Sanity's funeral service?"

"Quite palpable, quite palpable. Your parents were quite sad to lose their... son." He carried his words so finely that when the last word came up it almost sounded too far out of place.

Vanity slammed her hand on the table as her mane flamed up. "Son... Is that the damn word they used?"

"Of course, of course, you know I would never take such words in vain, especially around you. Besides we need to get to the new recruit. We will be arrving soon" Carnival stared deep at Sage.

"Don't worry, he can be trusted." She looked over to the dark lavender unicorn with the chef's hat. "Chef, get over here with that food and help me prove Sage's loyalty."

"Calm yourself, calm yourself." Carnival walked over to a chair and sat down before finishing. "We need to still give grace." On that, the dark lavender chef brought over the plates and placed them down. One to each of them, leaving five plates unattended.

The dark lavender unicorn didn't take a plate at all, or even a chair. He simply stood back and waited.

"I'm assuming one of those extras are for Rex?" Vanity snarked. "Why does Frost continue to try?"

"Our great lord see so much potential in him."

"Even if he killed Sanity!"

"What happened doesn't excuse the possibility of him joining."

Vanity rolled her eyes and pointed to the next two plates. "Okay, so those are for..."

"The Night Brothers, they are running a bit late. It's rather hard to cross the celestial sea this time of year. But they said that they would arrive in the unicorn providence soon."

That answered all but the final two. "What about...?" Vanity paused her words and let Carnival figure out the rest. This wasn't that hard even for the very blunt priest in circus attire. The last two plates were certainly special since they had gold rimming them.

"Oh, yes, oh, yes. One is for our good lord the other is for a special guest."

"And that special guest is?"

"We will be arriving to see her soon." The dark lavender unicorn interrupted them. Putting to rest the question finally the chef walked over and pulled the covers off.

Sage was taken completely aback by the sight of the finely cook arm of his siren ally now in front of him. The arm was cooked to a golden brown with much of the skin crisped and just barely hanging on. Some freshly cut carrots and red wine vinaigrette laid around it.

"Well done, again." Vanity smiled. The dark lavender unicorn took his leave.

Once the chef was out of sight Carnival placed his hands outward toward Sage and Vanity. "Let us pray for this elegant food. Indeed, let us pray."

Though annoyed Vanity bowed her head. Sage didn't at first but slowly followed after a shove from the ifrit beside him.

"The great darkness once shielded us from the light. It never seemed to care to guide us, that is until he came along. The bastard, the killer and the butcher. Our great lord Frost led us out through the darkness and into a light greater than any light could be. He showed us, yes he showed us the path and the way to righteousness. Union, family and above all-"

"Yeah, yeah, all that good stuff." Vanity interrupted.

Carnival huffed in annoyance. "Ahem."

The word didn't even reach Sage's ears. He was still in too much shock at the plate. Slowly though the ifrit's eyes wandered over to the others. Carnival showed absolutely no hesitation, gulping down red wine from what Sage could only assume was a filly's skull, slurping up the juices like a deranged pup. At the same time despite her rush to eat Vanity was slowly cutting off small pieces of meat from another siren arm and seemingly savoring every piece in her mouth before swallowing.

Suddenly Sage caught sight of Vanity's clean olive colored eyes. She stared at him while continuing to eat. Her eyes pointed toward his food more than twice. Seeing her hint Sage turned back to his own plate. Despite knowing the owner of the arm he felt an urge of hunger that really he knew he couldn't ignore. He knew very well that they could easily throw him in with his allies.

Taking in a deep breath he picked up the fork and knife and stabbed the nearest piece of flesh. He found that the flesh was quite tender in the cut as very little pressure was needed at all. He brought the piece to his mouth and hesitated for only a single moment that felt like an eternity before finally placing it onto his tongue. Pulling back his teeth kept the meat from rolling out. Closing his eyes and releasing his jaws he let it move back and forth around his mouth.

He expected himself to gag, pull back or even choke in revilement but instead flavor was all he could taste. His mind screamed in agony at the taste, but no matter how many dark thoughts went through his head his stomach didn't hesitate once.

Seeing the swallow made Vanity smile.

In town, Starlight struggled to keep up with Twilight as they raced toward the center. Sure, there have been many times where the student could outpace her teacher, but today things were different. Starlight was still carrying a large amount of stuff and attempting to finish the chosen chapter of the purple book so her speed was hurt quite a bit. At the same time, Twilight was in such a rush.

"Finally we're here?" Twilight came to a stop. "And just in time too." She pointed to the clocktower just as it struck noon.

Starlight lifted her head at the sounds of the clocktower as it boomed over the area. Her sight traced over a dusty altar and a few dozen meters of extra room in all directions. "Really this place? This is where you will be having your party?!"

Twilight smiled in confusion to her student's question and walked over to pat her on the head. "Wow, you are truly forgetful today."

"What do you mean by that?" Starlight didn't like this demeaning tone from Twilight.

"This wasn't my party to plan, this was your's." On that Twilight pulled her into a tight hug.

It took a few moments for Starlight to finally realize what Twilight was meaning. As everything fell into place Starlight's eyes widened and she returned the hug, "Really? Oh, thank you! Thank you!"

"Of, course. That's why I asked you to read that chapter about Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie."

"Wait… " Starlight kept the hug going but pulled her head back in confusion.

"Exactly, the lesson was about-"

"So… a party."

A lone male voice beyond them stopped Twilight's train of thought. She turned away from Starlight and saw Crimson standing at the entrance. On pure reaction, she poofed out of Starlight's arms and right in front of Crimson. "Yes… a party to celebrate the day of my arrival in this timeline." Despite the clarity in her words, they were slow to pull out from her mouth. She was a bit shock that he would actually show up, though she was also caught off guard by his clean trim of clothing. She was so used to his always unkempt style. It seemed like he really cleaned up… just for her.

"The day you arrived… Isn't that tomorrow?"

"I wanted to celebrate today instead." Again she was caught off guard for reasons she couldn't explain. She knew that she wasn't blushing so what could have her mind in such a fluster.

"That's fine by me," Starlight threw the stuff into the air and poofed them away. Seconds later the stuff returned with extra stuff that had been part of the original plan. At first, the idea that Starlight had was simply to include Silver Pear, herself, Twilight and a few regulars from the bar, maybe even Crimson, but since Twilight was clearly spending the day giving messages to so many others it was clear this kind of party would be much bigger.

"And really it's perfect timing." Crimson walked over to help Starlight. "Today is the eve to the Winter Solstice too."

Twilight's eyes went wide at those words, Starlight herself nearly dropped the stuff to the ground.

Crimson's horn glowed an icy blue and caught the stuff at the very edge of the ground. "Did I say something wrong?" He placed the stuff down softly. He looked back and forth to the faces of both mares. "Don't... tell me you forgot?"

Twilight's mind went racing nonstop, "Don't tell me we just... Did we just create... No, that's not possible... Could it?"

Starlight grabbed her teacher and attempted to push everything aside to walk her around and rest her brain. "Okay, you can calm down Teach... I highly doubt we just change the timeline."

"How would a simple party do that?" Crimson walked over to Twilight only to be stopped by a gesture from Starlight.

"Well... you see we have a holiday in our timeline called Hearth's Warming." Starlight tried her best to smile knowing that saying those words aloud would only make her teacher's mind race faster. "It so happens to take place on the winter solstice..."

"How could I forget...? How could I forget...?" Twilight mumbled to herself back and forth. "We have to make sure... No earth ponies or pegasi. Did I invite any one being of importance to... history?"

"Hmm, oh, I've got it." Starlight stopped pushing her teacher around. "Twilight isn't there something you want to show Crimson?"

"I forgot... I forgot...-" Twilight stopped herself and looked to Starlight. "What are you talking abo-" Her eyes went wide and she lifted up her hand and snapped her fingers. A box poofed into view and landed in her free hand. "Yeah... wait what if giving him this... will it create the traditions that we celebrat-"

Starlight closed her teacher's mouth with magic. "Just take a deep breath, we aren't going to change history!" Instantly she let go of the magic hold and quickly apologized.

"You... got me a gift." Crimson placed his hand on the chest. "I believe Starlight. just let me see."

Twilight dropped her confused and moody look. She took in a deep breath and spoke, "Okay, its just something small." She opened it.

"Oooh," He smiled and pulled out the necklace.

"I thought it would be something cool we can study together. I mean if that's what you like doing with me."

Crimson didn't answer at first as he continued to look over the necklace so closely. His stare was so intense, it was as if he was in another world.

"Crimson?" Twilight walked closer.

"Oh… sure" His eyes blinked twice. Twilight's words had pulled him out of whatever wandering his mind was going through. Crimson looked back at her and smiled greatly, "Of course, I always enjoy studying stuff with you." His words were very different from before, there were hints of joy yes and even sincerity, but there was an underlayer of something else that caught both the mares' attention. They couldn't place what was so different about his voice only that it was a hint of something they never noticed in him.

"Hmm," Crimson posed as he held the necklace up high. "I think right now, I should wear this so we don't misplace it during the party." He dropped it over his head and around his neck.

"Uhh.. sure." Twilight backed away with a smile.

"Well, we better get ready for this party. Silver Pear will be here soon."

"What about Granny Apple?"

"Oh, come on, you know she is not a big party pony." On those words, the three moved to setting things up as ponies and other creatures slowly made their way to them.

Back at the Wolf's Apple business had slowed to a halt. Granny Apple stepped out of the tavern and looked around. She was curious about the sudden drop in business but also interested in what the commotion was. She could hear Twilight and Starlight's names being brought up constantly from random ponies as they passed by. "Now what have those mares gotten themselves into?"

Seeing that everyone else seemed too busy she reached over and flipped the open sign to close than put her cane to the side. She reached back inside and grabbed out the broom and a bag of salt. "Well since there is no movement, I best get things ready for when they get back. I hope those two are finally having fun. Speaking of which where is that son of mine."

Suddenly she heard footsteps crack through the thin snow on the road heading her direction. The stepped separated themselves from the rushes in her ears because they were much slower and more precise. As a former big game hunter, this old mare could easily tell the difference between rush and hesitation. "Now who could that be?" She stopped her work and looked toward the sound.

A few meters ahead of her was the foggy red stallion. She felt a strange emotion at seeing him. She couldn't quite place the emotion, other than strange familiarity.

"Hello, sir," she waved at him, but he stopped his approach and backed away a few steps. "What's wrong sir?" Granny Apple walked closer. She knew he wanted something but couldn't figure out what.

Suddenly he held up his hand in a gesture to stop her. He stood absolutely still for several moments before waving his head back and forth. He turned around to go the other direction.

"Adults these days are so confusing?" She scratched her head in confusion before going back to work.

Booms filled the air above the center of town as ponies and many other creatures danced through the altar outlet. Starlight was surprised, to say the least, she didn't expect so many to show for this party. Really she only planned for a few ponies before Twilight twisted everything around. "It's a good thing that Twilight told me to read that terrible chapter."

"So that teacher of yours had a brilliant idea too?" Silver Pear walked over with three mares wrapped around him.

"What? Of course, she always does." Starlight gave little reaction to the other mares.

"Is that why you wanted it to be a surprise?"

"Well, actually I wanted to handle everything myself." Starlight leaned her head down.

Seeing the sadness he brought to her Silver Pear nodded to his dates and they walked over to the punch bowl. The slick stallion walked over and leaned on the wall beside Starlight. "There is nothing wrong with asking for help."

"I know that. It just that she has done so much for me during these years trapped in multiple timelines. She helped me through all kinds of stuff. From saving me from a vicious killer to standing by me against a titanic god of all things. And yet through all of that, she still forgave me for any mistakes that I made during this journey."

"You make it sound more like she's your mother rather than your teacher." Silver Pear's eyes wandered downward.

"Huh, I never thought of it like-" Starlight's eyes went wide and her face went bright red.

"Got it-" Silver Pear was stopped by the crushing magic as it quickly removed his hand from Starlight's rear.

"I can't believe I expected better from you." Starlight pushed herself far from the wall and walked away. Puffs of black and white smoke followed her until she was out of Silver Pear's sight.

Silver Pear laughed at the pain in his hand as it went away. "I certainly try my best but sometimes I don't think I can ring in that mare." His eyes wandered over to the mares he was standing with earlier as they came back with some drinks. With them were two siren mares Izabel and Jezabel. "Well, five mares might just be pushing my limit. I might have to throw in some stallions to help me out." His eyes wandered over some possibilities until they came on Crimson. "Hmm, I wonder if Twilight won't mind?" He walked away from the wall and toward Crimson only to stop halfway when he saw Twilight walking over to the unicorn.

Silver Pear backed up and stared back to the mares as they surrounded him. "Nah, I think I can handle things just fine." He pulled the mares in tightly and they couldn't help but laugh at his feudal attempts to caress multiple rears. "Yeah, that's the ticket." His smile got bigger and bigger.

Inadvertently his eyes wandered back to Crimson. Seeing Crimson and Twilight standing so close to each other and not dancing filled his mind with a clever idea. "Hold on ladies, before we can have fun I think we should help a certain other pair have some fun." He pointed over, the mares laughed aloud at his targets. "Just listen closely."

Twilight and Crimson were by some tables laying out foods and checking drinks. Though the party was for Twilight, she felt it would be best to make sure everything was absolutely ready before she could enjoy herself. Crimson at the same time was staying by and keeping her company, helping with as much as possible so she wouldn't use up too much of her time.

"Hmm, there are plenty of things to drink but there might not be enough cups to drink with." Twilight continued to count.

"Didn't you buy most of the needed stuff today?"

"Of course I did." Twilight stopped and looked to Crimson's doubt with a slight annoyance. "It's just…" She walked over to another table. "They showed up so fast, we barely had time to react."

"Maybe if you hadn't have written on the letter 'get here as soon as possible'." Crimson let loose a small chuckle.

Suddenly Crimson's eyes wandered over to the far right away from Twilight sight only for a second.

"Well, I guess I got so used to a certain pink pony handling almost all the parties I've been to and now I'm a little rusty on how things work."

"Just enjoy yourself." Crimson poofed himself in front of her.

Twilight stopped her movement at this advance. Her eyes wandered away from him. "But there are things that need to be done-" The alicorn was caught off mid-sentence by a push from a certain earth pony. Before she could stop herself Twilight found herself crashing face first toward Crimson. Fearing an awkward moment she closed her eyes and leaned her head down.

Without warning, smoke flowed around them.

"Twilight…" Crimson's voice brought her back to reality

Twilight lifted her head and found herself in Crimson's arms. His face was mere centimeters away from her's yet the only thing going through her head at that moment was the pulsing pain on her rear. "Silver Pear…" She hissed under her breath.

"Twilight… I don't think Silver Pear's little move is what you should be worried about."

"What are you talking about-" She stopped halfway upon feeling the ground, or the lack thereof. On pure reaction, her wing muscles pulled in failure. Remembering only seconds later that her wings were kept hidden for obvious reasons. Panic filled her mind only for it to be quickly stopped at the graceful touch of Crimson's hand on her back.

"Calm yourself, we're not falling." His hands traced over her back, perfectly smoothing each feather of tension with every trace his fingers made.

"Wait, we're not." Twilight looked to the smoke as it finally cleared. Down below them was the onlookers including Silver Pear and his five dates, two of which were unicorns. It was at that moment Twilight noticed the pulsing of magic under her feet. In fact, there was a floor of thin magic holding the two of them up about five meters above the altar.

"Silver Pear!" Starlight's voice could be heard roaring over the crowd.

"What? It's Twilight's party, I think she should get at least one slow dance." Silver Pear laughed aloud and held tightly to Jezabel and Izabel. "Ladies, you mind helping the others out." On that, the two sirens opened their mouths and let loose a soothing of music.

"That little pervert didn't need to grab my ass to do this-" Twilight was stopped by Crimson's advance. Before she could even compute what he was doing she found her whole body being twirled.

"We could…" Crimson slowed his voice. "Enjoy this at least."

Twilight followed his movements suit and kept a close motion. "Yeah…" now her voice was slow too. "I guess we could… "

Crimson gently pulled her in close until their bodies were right against each other. Twilight placed her free hand on his shoulder. The two turned a few times before thining the embrace. Both were no longer speaking now, instead, they were letting there movements do all the talking they would ever need.

Twilight found her flustering fading around her. She didn't know why she was agreeing to such close movements. She didn't know why she wasn't just poofing over and slapping Silver Pear across the face. At the same time though she didn't know why she wasn't pushing this to go further even though something inside her was telling her the reverse. She knew she wasn't blushing and she couldn't even feel if her heart was jumping around erratically like the books always say. In fact, the only emotion she could possibly glean from this was simple happiness, not love, certainly not lust, not even longing, pure happiness was all that filled her.

Maybe it was because of Crimson, maybe it was because of this party, such a thing she had not had in a very long time, maybe it was simple ease of the mind. In the end, Twilight found herself no longer caring about any more possibilities. The only thing she wanted at this moment was for this joy to never ever end.

Snowflakes poured over the altar and despite all the cold everyone had been having these last few days they were all filled with joy. They cheered at the sight of them. Happiness seemed to be everywhere as many of them remarked at the fact that the snowflakes appeared to be moving on their own.

The snowflakes lightly swarmed around the altar's center and flowed right up beside the two as they floated. Neither one really noticed it and really would they care to notice? Who would notice it during all of this happiness? Who was dare question the snowflakes actions, or even notice the strangest of all.

Indeed in all of this happiness who would notice when one of the snowflakes opened to reveal an eye. An eye that had been watching them the whole time.

"Soon, my special guest, soon." An icy cold breath blew by Twilight's ear. She didn't even catch it as she leaned more into her dance with Crimson as the two started to finally descend. "The table is set and soon you will take your place at it."


	9. Chapter 8: Great Howling

A great howling echoed over the icy seas without a single sign of dipping pitch as it traced through each wave and fall. Reaching the shores it quickly traveled over several mountains and down to the canyons around them. It flowed to the cities, first hitting the most northern lands of the Crystal Empire. The crystal ponies gave it no mind at all.

The howling traveled to lower lands and to the great pastures reaching the Unicorn Providence where most gave again no care to it sounds or reasons. Many creatures both young and old seem to give no thought to this noise as it passed by them. Never once did they question its origins or why it never loses it's tone no matter the distance it traveled.

The noise then spread outward like a wave over the lands in all four directions. In the west, the Earth Pony Conglomerate could hear sadness about it but paid it no mind. In the east, the Pegasus isles were felt a nervousness about it and gave it no heed. And finally, in the south, both zebra tribes and buffalo tribe sensed an urgency about it and again believed no concern for it.

All heard it voice but none presented it little if any consideration, any interest, any concern ever. Delivering it just enough attention to notice it and move on. All just went about their own business as if it never happened.

Soon the howling went silent and the creatures of these lands continued with their lives. Within a matter of seconds, the sound was forgotten...

Until it returned a year later on the same day. Again no one creature gave it single care and just as quickly as it started it was forgotten. No matter how loud it was or moving it was none gave any attention enough to discern meaning or reason from it.

Again it left only to return another year later on the same day. Again the same reaction so it left and was quickly forgotten. Again it returned after another year and again the same.

Another year passed and another year. Time moved faster than any other. Years became decades, then centuries, then millennia. Finally, this howling just came as an acceptance by most mortals. By this point, they knew not when it started only that it was always there…

To them, there would never be a reason to discern it or query its possibilities. What little reason that did exist had vanished and it simply became an observable cycle in this world, like the Sun and Moon.

It always arrived on the Winter Solstice. The moment the sun would set on the previous day the howling would start. It was the shortest day in the year and the howling would last and last...

* * *

Starlight's opened her eyes at a white as it shined over her face. She held her hand up to this beam almost trying to reach for it as it rose over the horizon. "The Moon looks so close in this timeline. I never noticed that before." She got up and looked around, find herself on a table. The party seemed to reach its end some time ago. She didn't realize she had fallen asleep, or at least she hoped that Silver Pear got more stupid and roofied her.

She jumped off the table and walked around to pick up some of the trash. "That part that Pinkie wrote is right, there always is a mess. Though I don't think I would agree with that pink pony on how fun the cleaning is." She was quick in her movement, getting almost everything in only a few minutes.

Soon enough she realized Twilight was nowhere in sight. "Huh, I don't remember that much before falling asleep," her mind tried it's best to glean any memories but coming up empty. "Well, Teach must have gone home after I dropped out-" Her voice stopped at a strange sound that caught her off guard.

Looking up to the sky she finally noticed the unusual howling that field the air. "Wow, it's started already. Even after being here for two years now I don't think I'll ever get used to that howling." She placed the final piece of trash away and let her mind ponder on something other than the party. "I wonder why it howls?"

"Some believe a creature is searching for his lost love."

Starlight jumped at that voice and saw a tall charcoal stallion with a short unkempt navy blue mane standing at the entrance. He wasn't there before, she knew that for sure, she was looking at the exact spot not but five seconds earlier.

"Right? I'm sure you would know more about that then I would." Starlight mentally slapped herself when noticed how much humility just came out of her voice with those words. If only her teacher heard that line.

"You could say I've heard it way too many times to count." The charcoal stallion walked through the area and to the altar. "Looks like there was a mess here."

"Sorry, we just had a little party."

"Oh," the charcoal stallion nodded and seemed to mumble a few words to himself. While he seemed to be in his own world Starlight couldn't help but stare, she didn't what it was but she sensed a familiarity in his voice. His face despite its rough cut gave an air of trust but she couldn't place why. He wore several scarves and even chains so the rest of him certainly didn't convey this idea at all.

"Is this the center of town?" His question brought Starlight out of her thoughts.

"Uh, yes, it is."

"Odd, if this is the place, it should be right here. How old is this place?"

"Well, I haven't lived here that long so I really don't know." Starlight walked over and placed her hand on the altar's edge. "It's clearly been here longer then I have, just look at the cracks."

The charcoal stallion looked at them. "Huh, I guess your right. Look I really need to know this information so if you don't know then I'll go somewhere to find this information."

"WAIT!" Starlight nearly yelled.

The charcoal stallion put up his guard on pure reaction yet was at a greater loss when Starlight dropped her head in shame.

"Dang it, if my teacher found out I was being this forgetful she would sentence me to even harsher training." Starlight gestured to him to move away.

"Sounds like an old friend of mine." He moved with confusion but gave little care either way.

Starlight placed her hand on the crack and took a deep breath. "How much do you need this information?"

"It will save me a lot of time, but... " He turned away, "It would save lives too."

"Save lives huh? I never considered using this for that." Once she was sure that he was the only other living creature there she began. Frankly, she didn't know why she was being so trusting of this stallion. Nothing he did provided her any reason to help him let alone trust him with witnessing this. Wincing, she pressed her hand down hard on the sharp end until blood poured forth. A mighty purple glow shot out from her wound as words spoke forth.

This action made the charcoal stallion jump back rather fast. He walked closer and noticed the words weren't coming from Starlight's mouth.

"Light," Starlight spoke a word from her mouth and at that exact moment, the purple light turned blue and quickly faded. She opened her eyes and pulled her hand away. The charcoal stallion was shocked to see no wound at all on her hand. Without warning, Starlight fell to the ground. He went to help her, but she gestured a no to him. "Sorry, that happens sometimes. Really one of the reasons I did that was because I wondered if I still could."

"That was a vision spell."

"Sort of, I never really perfected it. I can only see dates when it's blue and when it red. coordinates."

His eyes widened at her words. It only took him a second to put such seemingly unconnected things together for he knew of such forms all too well and this was best shown by one word. "Omnious..."

Starlight felt her whole body pulsed. She didn't know why at all, but the word seemed to hit at her very core. It filled her with so much fear.

The charcoal stallion let go of his own fear at her reaction. "You don't know yet." He mumbled. "It matter not there are greater problems to deal with first." He walked closer to her and recomposed his voice. "Please tell me what date this was made."

"Huh," Starlight came to her senses with this less stern voice. "Right, it was made nearly five thousand years ago. I can only see numbers but I did feel... pain from the moment of this thing creation."

"Nearly, so it has no direct connection to him or the alathar. Or at least none that can be seen." He smiled and walked toward the exit. "Dang, that pirate was right-" His words stopped at the sight of something at the entrance blocking his way.

Starlight turned to see what stopped him and was met with an almost perfect ice sculpture of a wendigo, just out of nowhere standing in front of the entrance. "Did you make this?" she questioned him.

"Impossible, I was talking to you the whole time... I need to get going." He walked passed in an attempt to ignore it.

"Well, who did? It wasn't there a second ago. It seemed appeared from nothing." Starlight walked closer to it. "Though a great question is how is it so flawless? It strange, its like it appeared as fast as you did. Maybe even faster."

The charcoal stallion stopped at her words and reached to his chest. A maroon glow could be seen coming from an object on his neck. He took a breath and almost nodded a no at nothing before finally turning around. Once the glow stopped He looked back at the ice sculpture.

Starlight scanned it with magic while he walked back to give his own examining. He approached closer and found that the air around it was so much colder than the rest of the air.

"Maybe it remembers. I sense a lot of memories on this sculpture." He stopped scanning and mumbled a few words to himself.

"Ice with memories. If you had told me this when I was younger I would think you were silly." Starlight stopped scanning.

"What is wrong with silly? I know an old wizard who can make anything silly."

"Oh, really?"

"What is your name?" he asked as he fixed at something he had hidden under his scarf.

"Starlight, and your's."

"Rex. Listen I would stay and talk more about whatever this is... but I must be going. I have work to do. And apparently, a bet to lose," he mumbled the last part as he turned away and took his leave.

It took Starlight five seconds for the name to even compute, but once it did her jaw dropped, "Did he just say, Rex?" Without any thought on the matter, she stopped what she was doing and ran right after him as fast as she could. She ran off so fast that she didn't even notice that the sculpture vanished.

"Wait..." She called out to no avail. Following him down a corner and stopped as she held her hand toward him, "You said, Rex!"

Annoyed he finally turned around. "Yes, and?"

"It just that I-" Starlight stopped her words in her tracks as she saw the sculpture now behind Rex. He stopped moving too without any need to notice her reaction to the sudden appearance. "I thought so."

Suddenly the snow around them shook ever more as sculptures seemed to form from the particles, from the snowflakes around them. Rex sighed in annoyance. "I had a feeling they weren't sculptures. Looks like I certainly lost the bet now. He is here, or at least he will be soon. Now I owe that dang pirate ten bits." He swung his arm around and the chains covering him loosened and stretched out to a much longer degree then what originally could be seen. "You need to leave now."

Starlight frowned at his words and her horn glowed. "Not a chance." Her gentlemare sword appeared in her hand. "If I left this, I would never hear the end of it from my teacher."

On that, the sculptures came to life and jumped at them. Starlight jumped back as two crashed into each other where she originally was. "They aren't as bright as I expected wendigoes to be." She charged forward and stabbed the closest one in front of her. Three more jumped above her from behind, she turned and swung black and white magic outward, slicing them in half.

"No, this is just a cheap duplicate spell. The real wendigo is somewhere nearby, or at least one of his allies is." Rex swung his chains to take down four charging toward him. With a few fast strategic hits, they shattered like glass. Two more grabbed him from behind. His dark alicorn amulet glowed red and special golden chains shot out from it and wrapped around their necks and moved at high speed chopping their heads off. Now there was only one left.

Starlight and Rex turned toward each other and swung their weapons forward slicing the last one into pieces. Once they were finished they stopped to catch their breath.

"Damn, you are just as powerful as she is," Starlight remarked.

Rex was at a loss on who she was referring to and really didn't care. He needed to leave now. Indigo Frost made a move that was clearly directed at him. This new mare and her teacher would have to be ignored... for now.

"Hey, Rex, just an odd question-" Starlight stopped once she noticed that Rex had completely vanished with any trace. "What? And here I thought I was good at sensing magic." she walked over to the shards of the sculptures curious to everything that just happened.

Suddenly she threw up her hands and her gentlemare sword vanished. "Oh no, oh no. I have to find Twilight."

* * *

Icy blue eyes opened out to the world. They looked up to the night sky and to the east, the far east as if longing for something. The eyes had a determination in them to search for something that wasn't there anymore. The stare hardened once the sounds of the howling reached them. The irises widened yet narrowed around the tips like a creature of the night. Deep within those irises were a torrent of emotions that couldn't be placed on one single reason outside of the howling that held the sight so tightly.

Footsteps cut through the howling brought his attention to the west, only slightly. Approaching closer was an all too familiar unicorn mare. She seemed out of breath but in urgency to bring forth words that needed to be heard.

The unicorn came to a stop and her face of fear slowly faded at the sight of the owner of the icy blue eyes. "Crimson…" she questioned.

The dark lavender unicorn smiled at her and held up his hand. "Starlight… what is it?"

"Do you know where my teacher is?!" Starlight started to speak up however she found her mouth being closed by a red hue of magic.

"Shh, she's right here." He lifted the seemingly flat blanket over the bench and revealed that Twilight was actually asleep with her head on his lap. "She didn't want anypony to get insulted by her exhaustion so she told me to cast an illusion spell if she happened to fall asleep during this party." He whispered.

"Huh, and I assumed she didn't expect to fall asleep in your arms."

Crimson raised his hand over his head and attempted to not laugh. "Well, let's just say she trust me more than you think."

Starlight let out a deep breath. "My teacher works herself way too hard. Here, I plan this party for her and she is the one pushing herself to make sure everything is right." She dropped down gently on the other side of the bench and looked down to Twilight. "In a way, I guess its better she fall asleep near you since you wouldn't try anything, unlike Silver Pear."

"Yeah, Silver Pear sort of did try to invite me and Twilight to his… orgy… that he was planning to have after the party. Twilight quickly slapped him."

"Well, I would have done the same to that pervert." Starlight raised her hand in righteous fury.

"Ha, ha, its not his fault."

"What are you talking about? He flirts with literally anything, even trees."

"Yes, but that is how his father raised his family."

"Really?" Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Huh, I never knew any of his other family members outside from his mom."

"Well, his father had strange ways and that seemed to rub onto Silver Pear a little too well." Crimson looked down to Twilight. "It is one of the reasons I ended things with him, Silver Pear needs companionship… but desires sexual relationships... sometimes a little too much."

"I never thought of it that way. If only he would show admiration for a somepony's face rather than their ass."

"I guess that why you feel so drawn to him…"

Starlight's eyes went wide. "What?! I totally hate his guts! I mean…" She lowered her voice at the movement of Twilight. "He's my friend and I don't have anything romantic for that idiot."

"And you don't have to. You have been alone all your life that simply having somepony who is so far different from that is comforting to you."

"Really…" Starlight stopped her questioning and let her mind think on that for a few moments. "Hmm, maybe. But he and I are just friends, nothing more and nothing less."

"Oh, alright. That's fine." Crimson relented.

Starlight began to notice something else though in all of this. This talk was the longest conversation she ever had with Crimson. "Usually he would shut me off by now." She whispered to herself in the lightest tone possible.

"Why were you in such a rush anyway?"

Starlight threw her arms up in shock at that as she had totally forgotten. "I NEED TO TELL TWILIGHT SOMETHING IMPORTANT!"

Crimson quickly placed his hand over Starlight's mouth, no magic this time at all. "What are you doing?" He questioned with annoyance.

Starlight noted yet another thing Crimson rarely showed, in fact, Starlight couldn't think of a single moment where Crimson was ever angry. However, the next thing that came to her mind was the harshly cold feel of his fur. She tried to push that thought away and pulled away from his grip. "Sorry, it's just-"

Crimson stopped her words by placing two fingers on her forehead. "It's okay. I'll take the message for her." Before Starlight could protest the dark lavender unicorn read through her previous memories. "Huh, I see." He slowly removed his hand and repeated. "I see…" His horn glowed a red hue and Twilight's head slowly lifted up. The blanket went up as well and wrapped into a pillow shape and quickly floated under Twilight's head.

"Wow, to quickly switch between multiple spells that fast and so casually. I had no idea you were so proficient with magic."

Crimson raised his finger back to his mouth. "Please, I must go. Keep watch over Twilight for me. There is somepony I wish to talk to."

He walked over to the road and looked back to the east. He stopped his advance and lifted his ears up to the howling. He took a deep breath and looked back at Twilight. The moonlight shined off her face filling it with beauty.

"I… I'm sorry Twilight. I need to do something that you might not like." His smile turned into a frown and he turned toward the road and walked away. Before Starlight could question anything he was far from their sight.

Meanwhile on top of a building nearby a dark blue siren watched. "Hmm, interesting."

* * *

On the other side of town, deep in an alley, the foggy red stallion walked around aimlessly. He knew that he had stayed too long. He needed to find a place to sleep before the cold of the night sat in. He walked a bit further before stopping by a trash can. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he didn't notice he was being watched.

"Hello."

"That voice?" The foggy red stallion sprang to attention. His head swung back and forth until his eyes fell upon a filly standing at the front of the alley. It was a light blue siren filly. "What? It's just a filly?" he whispered to himself. He composed himself and walked over once he recognized her. "Hey, you were looking for your dog. Did you find him?"

The siren filly looked up to his tall height and smiled. "Actually, I just did. It's been years hasn't it… Bad Wolf."

The foggy red stallion jumped back at that word. His skin trembled at that voice. It was not the voice of a mere filly. "No… who are you?"

"Hmm, have you forgotten my voice?" The siren filly walked closer, talking with a very old male voice filled with wisdom and great intelligence far beyond her age and appearance.

"No…" The foggy red stallion's knees jolted in place. "That… voice…" His arms pulled inward and he attempted to distance himself from the siren filly, but this did little to halt her advance. "You can't have found me." The further he attempted to get away from her the better she closed the distance. It was as if the world was shrinking around him.

"Oh, but I have and as you can see, Lord Frost has allowed me to continue my work." The siren filly traced her fingers over her body as she walked closer. "This filly was one of a triplet." She placed her hand on the foggy red stallion's face and traced down to his chest. Her fingers ran over each muscle very slowly.

Both scared and sickened by these actions the foggy red stallion attempted to push the siren filly away. She ignored him and kept her advance until they both reached the wall.

Feeling the world close in on him the foggy red stallion grabbed out a knife. "No, stay back… I… I don't want to hurt you."

"Would you dare aim a knife at a poor filly?" The siren filly reached out and placed her hand on the knife. She moved closer until the knife was right against her chest. "Would you dare kill such a hostage?"

The foggy red stallion's eyes went wide and his face turned pale at the sight of the small amount of blood pouring from the spot. "I…" His hand trembled, "I don't want to hurt her, yet I don't want to remember… I don't want to serve him anymore!"

The siren filly pressed her hand hard on the knife until more blood poured forth. This made the foggy red stallion pull the knife away and throw it to the ground.

"What… do you want with me?"

"My ally calls upon you once again,"

"No… I won't go back… I can't."

"He is finally forming the new Nine Families."

"The… new Nine Families?"

"Indeed, all he needs now is three more members. One of the next choices is Rex, but the others are still undecided."

"He wants me to take a spot."

"Of course." The siren filly reached over and placed her hand on the foggy red stallion's cheek. "Join the wendigo in his fight."

"I… I…" The foggy red stallion's eyes narrowed. "I will never join you or this Indigo Frost."

"Oh, but you will, if you don't I will have to give this curse to another." Her hand traced to his eyes where a faint glow was now growing. "Maybe…"

"No, you leave them out of this. I left… I left…"

"You left because you couldn't hold up the end of your father's bargain. You left because you took it upon yourself to take the curse he couldn't keep and continued the blessing your family has enjoyed." On that, the siren filly brought her finger to his eye and press down.

The foggy red stallion quaked in agony as maroon-colored blood drained. "No, please I don't want to go back. Ahh! AHHH!" He screamed aloud as his fur changed from a foggy red to a distinct silver. His cheeks stretched backward and his hood fell revealing a bony like mane that was quickly growing in length.

"Rise, forth. My Big Bad Wolf."

* * *

Soon the earliest piercing of light cut through a dark night. The Moon rested is head and the Sun woke to the new morning. The howling had yet to lose its strength and wouldn't end until the Sun itself took a new rest. This didn't stop many ponies from waking rather early on this day.

Remembering the events from yesterday filled them with such joy. Their voice grew with great songs of gratitude toward Starlight and Twilight as they walked down the streets and back to the center of town.

Yet above the altar, sitting upon the mighty clocktower as it shadowed overall a tall figure wrapped in a stitch cover cloak. "Hmm, such a lovely song…" On that, a pale white hand pulled free. Sapphire blue eyes opened and glowed brightly. Without warning the warming Sun's light vanished. From the white hand shot forth endless cold. It flowed over the city without any restraint or loss of power.

Soon, all was covered in this icy wave. The great and joyful songs, boastful and wonderful sounds slowly faded. What replaced them was something much stronger and bolder.

And it was as clear as day. Nothing but icy silence and most of all the true and undaunting howling of the Winter Solstice.

No more was it ignored. No time like any other gave it much greater care. All stopped and listened and accepted the pain of one lost soul crying out to the world.

"No song is greater, no words are stronger than the voice of one utterly strong emotion. Hmm, such a lovely song… And that song's name is…Lamenta."

* * *

Author notes:

Sorry, for the late post I was busy all day yesterday helping my grandfather paint his large porch. In doing so I got a massive sunburn over most of my body. Luckily the episode was pretty much finished nearly a month ago, so all I needed to do today was check for any minor mistakes and then post. I hope you enjoy the chapter as it sets everything up for episode nine, the season finale. There is also massives hints throughout the chapter so don't miss out.

Don't forget to comment, like or favorite. Whichever you think is best. Want to keep with updates, follow me here or on my Twitter. [url= /Gryphonstar5678] /Gryphonstar5678[/url]


	10. Chapter 9: Bloody Cold

Explosions tore through the darkness and lite the sky up with a flurry of lights. Starlight struggled at the brightness, unable to stand the burning she slowly awoke. She looked around but couldn't figure out what was going on.

"Why?!"A loud shout echoed above her. "Why would you attack this place out of any other?" It was a male voice but the owner's face couldn't be seen anywhere.

"Because this is the center of everything." Another male voice echoed outward. "All my joy and all my hatred are in this single place. THIS. IS. WHERE. IT. ALL. BEGINS!"

The final roars carried through the swirling of the ruins of the older buildings and new buildings as they fell to the ground. Finally, the booms reached the Clocktower and the altar that stood before it.

Starlight found herself standing in a crowd of many different creatures that seemed to have been gathered into one spot. She tried to find the voices' owners but no matter how hard she looked she couldn't see them. Their voices were dampening by the second and yet a new sound was replacing them.

Drops... Sounds of drops echoed louder and louder. Starlight span back and forth curious about the noise. Finally, it became clear.

Tears... Tears fell from the face of a lavender mare as she shivered in place just a few meters away from Starlight. The mare wasn't cold, despite the snow all around. Yet the shivers refused to leave her no matter what.

This lone mare seemed to give little care to the echoes nor to the ponies, griffins, and sirens that coward from it.

Starlight tried to approach her but found her feet stuck in place. Her mind replayed over the events that led to this yet even though she could feel that the events had only happened minutes ago everything about them was a complete blur. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't remember any details nor who the lavender mare or the corpse was that the mare watched so closely. She wanted to remember so badly but something deep inside her chest kept stopping her, it was as if her own heart didn't want to know, or at at least it didn't want to give into what her mind was demanding.

Answers…

Answers…

Answers…

Starlight stopped her questioning at the sight of the lavender mare moving forward. Starlight attempted to follow her. However, despite her knees jolting back and forth her feet refused to move from her spot. She tried again and her legs nearly fell out from under her. Pushing harder she finally got one step out. Her legs were screaming in pain yet she pushed onward. Each step she took echoed through her head louder and louder.

Starlight fell a few inches from the lavender mare just as the mare reached the corpse. She picked herself back up and knocked the snow out of her face and looked at the corpse then back to the mare.

Answers…

Answers…

Answers…

Again no answer came, she couldn't figure out who the corpse was nor who the lavender mare no matter how hard she tried.

"Oh by the gods, it's an alicorn." A voice, so small yet was loud enough to break through Starlight's confusion.

Starlight turned to see a small dark blue colt pointing to the wings on the lavender mare's back. She gasped at this as he walked over to consoled the lavender mare, "Oh lovely goddess don't weep!" The colt walked closer. "The good lord said when we die we go to a better place?"

The words made Starlight's lips tremble and her face shake. She didn't know what was going on but she certainly didn't want this to be true. But she couldn't deny it anymore. All the facts were now clear, the lavender mare could only be her teacher, Twilight.

Then the only question now was, who was the corpse? However, before any more answers could found the unexpected happened.

The colt attempts to calm Twilight's pain was abruptly stopped by another voice, this one far older. "It's an alicorn, a famed immortal!"

Starlight turned too late to see a stone fly through the air. It landed on the ground barely missing Twilight's face.

"Just like the immortal who brought this war to us!" Another voice screamed out in rage.

Starlight's mouth drop, "No, it's not like that. It wasn't her fau-" she attempted to stand in the way of another stone, but this one went right through her. Her eyes widened at this. Finally, everything was clear, she wasn't really here.

Was this a dream? A vision? Some twisted nightmare or hallucination?

"Get away from that colt!" Another stone flew. This time it finally made contact, tearing into the left side of Twilight's face. "You don't deserve to be near him, you practically are the one who killed them all."

The eyepatch fell to the ground.

Starlight was at a complete loss for words. Why was she being shown this? She couldn't watch this any longer. Closing her eyes she demanded that this whatever it was ended now. "Stop it!"

"Get away from him!" More voices shouted.

"You are responsible for all of this!"

"Don't you dare mutilate him, you selfish witch!"

"You are as evil as that ghost!"

"Stop it!" Starlight kneeled down hoping this would end soon.

Yet as quickly as it began it ended. The shouting stopped and echoes of the stones ended. Starlight slowly let go of the grip around her ears and lifted her head up. She half assumed this vision was over, but she was regrettably wrong.

All the ponies had stopped. Despite them still having stones in hand they were still. A slash of fear covered each one of their faces. Starlight was in utter confusion… until she turned to see where Twilight was.

Her teacher was nowhere in sight. However, standing in Twilight's spot was a brown donkey in tattered clothing. This was clearly not Twilight, in fact, everything inside Starlight's whole being told her this was certainly not her teacher.

"Did you like what you saw?" The brown donkey questioned.

Starlight was caught completely off guard by these words. She felt deep inside herself that the brown donkey was talking to her. She had to know for sure so she pointed at the ponies around the area before pointing to herself.

"No, not them. I'm talking to you. Only you can see me." The brown donkey walked right up to her. "This is the first time we have met in this form, isn't it?" His voice was filled with a thick amount of familiarity, yet Starlight couldn't place where she had heard it before. It was like a voice she always knew, but could never pin onto somepony at all, even now she was confused as to whom this was.

"I tried warning Twilight. She wouldn't listen, so despite my lord's priorities about you, you are the only one I can ask now." He leaned down and grabbed her hand gently. "Stop them."

"Stop who?"

"Frost! He wants to use Twilight for something truly special."

"What do you mean?" Starlight reached out to him but without warning, the vision finally began to fade. "Wait... who are you?!"

"You already know who I am. I've always watched over you two from the moment you entered this timeline and now the strings of fate are making their move. Lord Frost and his allies must be stopped no matter the cost!"

With those final words, the vision fully faded to darkness. Starlight reached out in vain demanding answers, "Please, just tell me what going on?"

"I would... but you have to wake up... "

* * *

Starlight jumped out of her bed with any hesitation. A cold chill covered every pore of her body. She could barely catch her breath. Flicking her horn, clothes flew to her without any need to tense her bodily muscles. Once dress she raced to the door and poof her gentlemare sword into her hand. All of this before she even could compute the dream had ended already.

In fact, it was the grip of the doorknob that brought her back to reality. She pulled back as intense pain filled her hand. Such sensations she knew could never happen in a dream. But then her mind race with great confusion. "How am I in pain-" She stopped at the sight of her hand. It was almost dark red and was distinctly cover in a thin layer of ice.

Her heart sank so fast she reality that despite her fear of the dream had vanished, the chill over her body had not. Actually, it was far colder now then it was before. She tried to fight it, but her body at that moment wanted to utterly stop in place.

Pushing forward she placed her hand on the wood door instead of the frozen metal knob. The wood creek like it was soaked, yet there was certain other noise that totally unexpected. WIth little force at all the door broke off its hinges and slammed into the ground.

Starlight's eyes went wide to the sight of the entire tavern covered in ice. Taking in a deep swallow of breath she stepped out and found the floor could barely hold her. Swinging her head back and forth she quickly ran as the ground fell without pause. She quickly made her way to the window as the entire third floor collapsed.

Outside she was greeted with great cold, it was like a punch to the gut, in fact, the only thing stopping from falling was the fact that her teacher, Silver Pear, and even Granny Apple couldn't be sensed anywhere in the building. She concentrated harder on sensing them but still nothing.

"Damn it, calm down Starlight!" She yelled at herself. "Just take a deep breath." Doing just she leaned over and slowly her breathing. However, her grip of air became very shallow once she looked toward the ground.

"No... " Her eyes widened at the sight of blood over the thick snow. A trail going off far from the tavern. "No... No..." Before even finishing her words she burst into a run toward that direction.

After she deep within the ruble something moved. A brown hand reached out and a voice spoke forth. "Don't fail. Please don't fail."

* * *

Ice beat against titan airship as it fought through the winds. Inside Fredricson held tightly to the wheel while the others ran around. "We best hold onto… well, everything!"

Lady Cat rushed out from Adagio's room and toward the head of the ship. "Of course, you damn bilge rat. Why do you think I'm rushing through every room."

"Of sure you know better than me, you're a batpony. You are used to living in these types of conditions all the time with your canyons."

"Don't get stereotyping with me you racist!" She gripped the door reacting to a dramatic shift in the ship. "Shit, leave it to the earth pony to drive like a mule."

"Hey, you didn't act like that last night!" Fredricson turned the wheel to the far right.

"That's because my rear isn't as big as this ship-" Suddenly they were both stopped by cotton candy poofing into their mouths.

"Will you two please not compare this fright to your night time fun." Starswirl walked passed them to the very front of the ship. Holding out his hand his yellow eyes glowed brightly. Many yellow circles swarmed out from his hand and incantations followed. "Chaos Spell Number Fifty-Five!" He twisted his hand and the circles span, "Absolute Halt!"

Without warning the ship came to a complete stop. It was so sudden that nearly everything in the front deck flew forward.

"Why did you stop us, sir? I knew we could have got through that." Fredricson finally got his mouth free.

"Yes, but at what cost?!" Starswirl very rarely showed his anger but this was needed right now. "The ship would have been completely shredded by that." He pointed to the thickening blizzard that was quickly covering the entire town.

"Damn, that umbrum was right?" Fredricson walked over to see the destruction. Indeed he could feel the anger growing in Starswirl and the chill from the blizzard even though they were still so far from it. "I should have parked closer-"

"Settled your bet with Rex later. I'll have to go down to the surface, he and Clover will need all the help they can get." On that, Starswirl vanished.

* * *

Starlight's feet kept kicking herself forward as she followed the bloody trail through the village streets for an unknown amount of time. She didn't know how long she had been following the trail, only that she was at least still in the town but long enough that the chill of the cold morning air was no longer bothering her. Her mind wandered on hopes and fears as she increased her speed.

Sounds of crashing broke her from her thoughts. She turned to her left and saw townsfolk that were being attacked by wendigo sculptures. She stopped in her tracks with a near skid and stared for several seconds. Her feet wanted to go forward and keep following the blood, but her hands were saying no as they reached for her gentlemare sword. Her eyes darted back and forth, she knew from the look of the creatures they were clearly the same type that she had fought yesterday, but she didn't have time to deal with such things as blood trail beginning to thin out with newer layers of snow covering it.

Suddenly a scream of one of the townfolks made the choice for her as her hands pulled out her gentlemare sword and she changed directions toward the wendigo sculptures. She rushed in with a quick slash, taking down one before turning to slice another clean in half. She felt the chill of one from behind and ducked below it's twisting claws as it barely missed her mane. She swung backward punching the hilt of her gentlemare sword into the jaws of the enemy, busting it open. She spun back around and kicked with great force, sending the wendigo sculpture crashing through the snow and into a wall.

Her teeth gritted at the feeling of ice grabbing her feet. She pointed her gentlemare sword downward and stabbed a rising wendigo sculpture in the eye. She pushed herself upward with the force of the attack and threw herself into a crowd of them that had quickly surrounded some fillies. Standing over the fillies as they gathered down she swung left and right to stop as many of the wendigo sculptures as she could.

However, one grabbed her by the arm and threw her away from the fillies. She looked in terror as she flew through the air seemingly in slow motion. She lit her horn an attempt to try and stop them but halted as she realized she might hit the fillies. Her eyes strained as they watched, seeing the tears upon the fillies' faces.

Suddenly a green blur ran through the crowding wendigo sculptures and save the fillies as time moved at normal speed once again. Starlight smile as she felt the big strong arms of Red Steel catching her, knowing very well that the green blur was Hermes. Red Steel set Starlight down and then pulled out a massive boulder out of the ground. He tossed it with very little strength at the wendigo sculptures as they turned their attention toward it.

Hermes appeared with the fillies in his arms and put them down as the wendigo sculptures shattered a few meters behind him. Starlight and Red Steel walked over to him as he took a breath. "Wow, wow, I didn't think I would even in a million, zillion years be fast enough the save those adorable little fillies. It was like the push from a strike of lightning or maybe faster. Though unlikely as the speed of light which is-"

"Okay, we don't have time for that kind of information right now, Hermes," Starlight interrupted him as she held her hand up to his mouth.

The griffin's beak twitched and he pushed away from her hand so he could speak. "Wow, You never told me how soft your hand was Starlight. What kind of lotion do you use?-"

Starlight pulled her hand away in fear, "Hey, don't you start acting like Silver Pear on me."

Suddenly a deep whistle pierced everything around them. They all came to attention and span around to find the source. Starlight didn't know who sent the noise but she did know at least that is was very distinct from the Great Howling that always appeared during this time of the year since she could still hear that as well in a faint distance.

Instantly she stopped as the whistling ended and her eyes fell upon a tall icy blue figure standing on the clocktower in the distance. It was too far to see what the figure looked like, but it was very clear that this thing was the real wendigo responsible for the attack.

Without warning a massive amount of snow began to shake between them and the icy blue figure. Giant chunks swarmed from the ground and formed a giant-sized wendigo sculpture as it rose up from the snow and jumped toward them. This was way too big for them to take alone, but they weren't alone as they held up their weapons ready for battle. Starlight with her gentlemare sword, Hermes with his sabres, Red Steel with his tomahawks.

Luckily on the best of timing, the mighty lion Lighttone jumped out of nowhere into the air and bit down on the wendigo sculpture's neck as his attack pushed with enough force to knock it into an empty building nearby, missing them completely.

Once he had it pinned, he bit down into its pseudo-flesh only to quickly pull back and gag. "Ugh, this doesn't taste like a wendigo. It tastes more like something else."

"Something else?" Starlight ran over to him as he climbed out of the rubble.

"Indeed."

"But how? This is a memory duplicate spell, right? You have to be mistaken, there has to be a wendigo responsible for this." Starlight pointed outward

As they argued Rainbow Blitz walked up, "Don't you two sound confused, but I'm going to have to agree with Lightttone's taste buds today. I just came from the direction of that whistle and that tall one is far too large to be a Wendigo." He stopped long enough to take a swing of his whiskey. "Not only that, but I also saw Granny Apple being held hostage by some sort of wolf creature."

"What?" Starlight turned toward Rainbow Blitz in a bit of a rush and demanded, "Is she okay?"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't get close enough to see." Rainbow Blitz hit at his dizzy eyes. "I had too much to drink today. But I was able to see that Twilight and Silver Pear were fighting their way over there."

"It's okay," Starlight grabbed his whiskey. "I'll go help save Granny Apple. You stop with the drinking." Suddenly several more wendigo sculptures rose from the snow. "Meanwhile you four save as many town folks as you can." She threw the bottle to the ground and jumped upward and forward. Quickly she ran over the heads on the wendigo sculptures that were in the way as the others charged into the enemies around them.

* * *

On the other side of town, black shadows covered buildings as wendigo sculptures were cracked and busted with little effort. Clover jumped over roofs and through layers of chains as they shot by. The seafoam green unicorn despite not being very good with most flying or levitation based spells she was always extremely acrobatic and useful with close combat spells. She did her best to swinging from edges and through the many chains Rex had on standby while punching or bashing through any enemy that got within range.

Rex, on the other hand, was prolific with field spells especially the native ones of his species. He stayed near the ground controlling most of the area's movement to his advantage.

"So were these fakes as durable as they were yesterday?" Clover questioned.

"No, these are certainly more sturdy." Rex swatted some away.

"Hmm, maybe the earlier ones were more of a test."

"Possibly, though it could be that he was building up strength-" Rex was stopped by twenty of the sculptures jumping from the snow and grabbing him. Clover jumped down to help him but stopped halfway at the sight of his eyes glowing. "Hell's Spikes!" He roared outward and many spikes shot out from the shadows.

Clover spanned her staff to knock away as pieces flew by her and Rex waved out the remains off of him. "Either way, we need to take out more of these if we are to finally get sight of him.

"That is if he's really here."

A scream called out and got their attention. They turned to see griffins getting surrounded.

"We will have to keep fighting until we find out." Clover smiled and slapped Rex's right hand before doing several flips toward the direction. Just before reaching the crowd she pushed on her final touch of the ground and launched herself high above the enemy and landed on the other side.

Rex held back his right hand. "And..."

"Get down!" Clover shouted to the griffins.

"Now!" Rex fell into his shadow and the strings on his fingers pulled with him. Clover followed suit and gripped tightly onto the other side of the strings that she grabbed earlier and ran to one side, quickly using the sharp sides to slice the sculptures in half.

"Yes-" Clover's victory was cut short at feeling the edges of a knife to her back. Jumping forward just barely quick enough to dodge being stabbed she landed near the griffins and tried to hide the fact she completely lost her breath in that moment.

"Dangnabbit. I missed." A scalpel span in the hand of a flaming mare.

Clover's eyes went wide. "Impossible, Rex killed you."

"Oh, I'm not her." Vanity smiled and charged forward.

Clover twisted her staff the knock away the small weapon as it closes in. Vanity crashed her fist into the staff and turned her scalpel downward through the defenses barely missing the unicorn's throat. Clover withdrew her staff away in a false pulled back. Before the ifrit could react the staff flipped back around and knocked her scalpel far from them.

Seeing herself weaponless Vanity went in with more fist, punching Clover right across the face. Clover caught it and twisted the hand and elbowed Vanity in the gut and punched her staff into the flaming mare's chin. The hard-hit pushed Vanity far back, breaking the closeness of the bout.

"I assume you working for that wendigo as well." Rex rose up behind her and wrapped chains over the ifrit.

"What?!" Vanity struggled. "Damn you Alicorn Lapdog. You killed my sister!"

"So that would make you Vanity Claymore. The ifrit doctor who helped your brother with his unusual ways."

"Shut up! She was a fine mare-" Vanity was knocked out by a swift punch to the stomach.

"Well, everypony has their ways." Rex dropped her and walked back over to Clover. He reached over the unicorn's face noting a small cut near her chin. "Sorry, for not coming back sooner."

"Don't worry, I had that bight handled just fine." Clover walked over and kicked Vanity in the face.

"Okay... I guess we should go back to the hunt..." Rex stopped as flames surround them both.

"Rex..."

"Hmm, it's not this one..." Rex pulled at his chains only to find that Vanity had been freed and was nowhere in sight.

"How did she get free?" Clover jumped around in annoyance.

"I don't think she is the only ifrit Indigo Frost has in his employment." Rex held up his hand and swung outward, knocking the flames away with his chains. "Either way, we need to get back to work."

"Fuck!" Clover cursed at the sight of more wendigo sculptures charging at them. "They don't seem to end!"

* * *

Back toward the center of the town, Starlight arrived at the area around the altar. The place was vastly different from before. All the joy from yesterday and been replaced with horror and violence as many creatures did the best they could to survive against the vast onslaught.

Hearing a crash of familiar magic she turned the altar itself and saw Twilight fighting off a few of those wendigo sculptures. However, she couldn't spot where Silver Pear or Granny Apple was.

She didn't have time to keep searching forever. Plus her memories of the dream were still at the back of her head. She decided her best bet was to help Twilight out first.

She charged forward and sliced off the head of one as she passed around the group that was surrounding Twilight. Twilight smiled as she saw her, knowing almost instantly what she was planning to do. She held up her kopises and summoned a shield spell around herself as Starlight made the final pass.

Starlight concentrated magic to the tip of her gentlemare sword as the running around the group was creating a white circle of magic around the enemy. Meanwhile, a black circle appeared on the edges of Twilight's shield as they spoke the words to complete the spell.

"Dark Magic Ring!" Twilight shouted as she completed her circle.

"Light Magic Ring!" Starlight shouted as she completed her circle.

"Omni Cleve!" they spoke in unison as the two circles became one and chopped the large group of wendigo sculptures in half.

Twilight quickly fell to the ground as the scar under her eyepatch began to burn.

"Teacher, you okay?" Starlight ran over.

"Yeah, I'll be fine…" She could only sneer the rest of her words with pain as her horn began to glow with dark magic purely on it own.

Suddenly a large one shot out of the snow behind too fast for Starlight to react. She turned with only enough time to pull her guard almost into place.

"Sorry, I'm late, Lovely."

She smiled as it shattered upon hitting the ground and then quickly gave a look of annoyance at that damn nickname. Silver Pear stood grinning over the rubble with his claymore out over his shoulder.

"Glad you could make it." Starlight jumped forward and punched him in the gut with the hilt of her gentlemare sword.

"Ouch, what was that for?" He grabbed his gut in slight pain.

"Just watching your back," she gave an evil smile as she pulled her weapon out of the enemy that had been standing behind him.

Silver Pear blushed slightly once he realized his mistake. "Sorry, again."

The two jumped back from each other as another giant one dropped his hand between them as Twilight stabbed her kopises through it.

"Eno… Enou… Enough… flirting you two. Fight!" Twilight could barely get her words out so she switched to basic magic, hoping the pain would subside. She jumped back upward and took off the giant one's head with a crescent-shaped attack. "Single Crescent Moon."

"Fine..." Silver Pear huffed.

Starlight didn't let any little breath stop her as she rushed through the armies of wendigo sculptures. She had to end this fight and now before the dream became reality. "Did you see them from that building?"

"No, I didn't Starlight." Silver Pear sliced through more enemies. "Where could my mother possibly be?"

"I don't know, but we will find her." Twilight knocked the sweat off her brow after shattering another one.

* * *

As they charged into the increasing number of wendigo sculptures a mysterious siren with dark blue fur watched from above a small building in the distance. He narrowed his eyes deeper into binoculars, aiming them at Twilight. His stare was so intense yet the rest of his face was so placid, giving the feeling of strong thoughts with no outer reason to react on them.

One of the wendigo sculptures knocked Twilight down. Its claws went toward her throat. On pure reaction, the siren stallion reached for his sheathed falcata but stopped and took a breath, "No, you are here purely to observe." Letting go of his weapon he looked outward across the battlefield. "Now where are you. You were supposed to be leading this assault, yet you are still nowhere in sight."

A buzzing cut through the air and he huffed in annoyance. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a crystal. Pressing on it a voice spoke forth.

"Cold Blue, How goes your surveillance?"

"No problems, Lord Blood Diamond. I have found a few promising details including a strange lavender mare."

"Hmm, didn't the legends say Indigo Frost had a lover that was lavender-"

"Actually that was a dark lavender siren?" Realizing he interrupted his lord Cold Blue quickly apologized.

"It is okay." Blood Diamond did his best to hide a chuckle.

Cold Blue cleared his voice, "The details about this not dark but normal colored lavender unicorn mare is that she has a lot more power then one might think. Plus upon checking more information about her magic signature..." He leaned over toward the direction of Twilight.

"What about her magic signature?"

"It seems to match the masked figure that refers to himself as Indigo Frost. They might be connected."

"You are saying she might know who is really behind the mask."

"Maybe," Cold Blue tried his best to clarify his words. "She is certainly a piece to keep watch over."

"Fine, continue your watch. Also, keep an eye out for Rex. We don't him to cause too much trouble."

"Is that a remark against Rex or the alicorn he works under-" Cold Blue stopped upon sensing several wendigo sculptures behind him. Jumping high backward he landed behind them. The crystal floated around him while Blood Diamond continued to talk.

"My aunt has never been a bright mare. Either way, we must leave you back to your duties. We will be meeting with the leader of the unicorns soon enough. Hopefully, this Princess Platinum can be of use to us in the coming war."

"Understood." Clod Blue lost no step in taking down the wendigo sculptures. All while keeping a close eye on Twilight Sparkle.

* * *

Eventually Twilight, Starlight and Silver Pear found themselves almost finished. The numbers were dropping fast. Some of them considered it too fast.

However without warning the whistling that had summoned these wendigo sculptures returned. This time even louder than before. They covered their ears in distress but also tried their best to keep their guards up.

Despite their attempts, the sound was not the greatest danger as the snow on the ground swelled up. Struggling they quickly found themselves gripped by the snow. It pulled at them, quickly trying to separate them.

Meanwhile, the whistling tore across the entire area, spreading out to the furthest reaches of the town and shook everypony straight to the bone. Soon though the sound stopped and the wendigoes halted their advance.

The battle went incredibly silent, so much so that the sweat from their face could be heard hitting the ground. Everything was quiet except for the Great Howling of this day.

* * *

On the other side of the town, Rex and Clover were heading toward the center of town. However, Rex stopped in place and Clover quickly followed.

"What's wrong?" Clover questioned.

"The whistles, it stopped the dark magic of this spell."

"Impossible." Clover looked back and forth. "The wendigo sculptures are still standing."

"Yes, but why..." Rex's eyes widened. "Not standing still, waiting… waiting for a command." He dropped his hand and rushed forward. "We have to hurry."

* * *

Twilight felt every part of her body twisted in agony. Her legs hurt the most as the snow twisted tighter. She looked over to Starlight and Silver Pear, though they were far from her she at least smiled at the sight of their safety.

"Don't go smiling just yet," An icy cold voice struck right through Twilight making everything is her fade and be quickly replaced by fear. She looked over toward the altar, surprised to see herself far from it. In fact, it seemed that the entire area around the altar had been stretched. She swung her head around and shivered at the sight of the massive crater over the entire area that had pretty much remade the entire place, all except the altar and the clocktower. Both despite being at the center of the crater were completely untouched.

"How did so much get displaced?" she questioned. Was this some form of magic? Her mind raced over any possible spell but nothing came to form.

"Are you done?" The voice returned and again it made her heart jumped. Without any hesitation, her sight raced to the altar. The sight first filled her mind with confusion, before nothing was standing on the altar so she paid no mind to it when looking at her surrounding yet now there was something on it.

"How did I not see him-" Her voice stopped once the figure became clear to her sight. She wasn't blinded before but this figure was an almost denial until now. Now it struck through her whole being what this was, who this was. Instantly she found herself shaking against her strongest guard at the sight of his own bony smile.

It was a wendigo this was completely sure. But something deep within her told her this was a complete denial of the truth. One thing was sure, she couldn't ignore the familiarity and fear growing the longer she stared.

It had fur that was icy blue and sapphire colored eyes with a long blonde mane flowing out of a large deer skull that he wore over the upper part of his face. His body was very thin and bony yet muscular, hidden well under his very long leathery cobalt cape covered in stitches edged with snow leopard fur. Pulling back his cloak revealed underlining that was covered in long pure white feathers that have been combed down, almost giving the form of angel wings. Under it all, he wore a vest made from a black panther's pelt with a silk indigo colored backside over a green dress shirt with a cobalt tie. For his lowers he wore a pair of green leathery high water pants but no shoes.

Yet none of these details was what made Twilight back away in horror the most. Yes, they were all important but none so more than the final.

What made her whole form wrack with fear was the fact that the sleeves had been cut short, leaving his wrists to his elbows completely exposed to the fur below… showing that one of his arms was pale white as if it had been replaced.

The white arm replacing the very arm… that... that Silver Pear had cut off two years ago.

"I see you finally spotted it." He held up the pale white arm and traced the fingers of his hand over the scar. "It took me some time to replace it. Who would had thought randomly choosing that one day and one part of the forest for a quick easy meal two years ago would set my plan so far back." He dropped the arms and walked forward until he reached the edge of the altar. "But, I guess you could call it fate that I met you and them that day."

"You… it can't be him." Twilight's dread pulled the other's eyes to what she was seeing.

"Impossible. I sliced you through the chest, Silver pear took out your arm... that would kill anypony." Twilight tried straightening her now lose stance but her legs felt like putty.

"You can't kill what is already dead."

Twilight was perplexed by his words.

"That's right. You never knew my name, Indigo Frost." He lifted his head and scraped his claws lightly over his mask.

"Fine, Indigo where is my mom?!" Silver Pear shouted.

Despite the past connection he had with Silver Pear Indigo Frost gave little care to the earth pony and continue to feast at the sight of Twilight's fear.

"Hey, answer me!" Hearing the annoyance again, Indigo Frost finally gestured his hand.

Twilight followed his suit and her iris shrank at the sight. Being pulled to the platform was Granny Apple… and Crimson, both in chains; they were being brought by a rather large gray inugami with red highlights.

The inugami brought them to the center and then stopped. "That will be all Bad Wolf, now stand by for further orders."

"But…"

"I said standby!"

Bad Wolf's eyes went wide and his mouth trembled before backing away from the chains. His movement was rather slow as he seemed to be watching Granny Apple extremely closely.

The inugami's actions confused Silver Pear at first, but he was at least happy to see his mother alive and well. Though with no wounds on her, nor on Crimson. His mind wanted to question whose blood outside the tavern, but he was more worried about his mother's well being first. "Are you okay mother?"

She looked to him and gave a pale stare before looking to Bad Wolf. Her mouth hung for a moment before looking back at her son and not saying a single word. This only brought more confusion to Silver Pear.

Twilight meanwhile had her mind completely on Crimson. What was he doing here? Why was he here?

"What is wrong, Twilight? Can't the reason for these choices of hostages?" Indigo Frost interrupted her thoughts with his cold words.

How did he even know what she was thinking? Was this a threat? If so, why was Crimson here? She didn't even know him back when she had her encounter with this monster.

"Fine, what do you want? Revenge!" Twilight dosed her weapons with magic.

"No, I'm after something better." Indigo Frost's grin grew bigger. "However what I'm after does involve you." He pointed down to the altar they stood upon. "Tell do you know this place. The name of this altar."

"I… I…"

"Hmm, thought not. This altar was designed by the first to hate wendigoes to ever exist. When magic is here, especially dark magic, something happens to the user..."

"You want me to use dark magic here."

"Soon, but not yet." He turned to Crimson, "I need to claim something. first." He held out his hand out and the snowflakes rose from the ground and pulled him forward. "Though, I never considered you of all creatures would be the one to bring it right to me."

Indigo Frost's eyes raced back to Twilight as he reached to the necklace on Crimson's neck. Gripping it tightly he yanged hard, bashing Crimson's face into his knuckles.

"Crimson!" Twilight attempted to swing her arms but quickly found them being held down by snowflakes as well.

"You don't know what this is, do you?" Indigo Frost ripped off the chain and held the turquoise pearl up high. "This is an alathar, one of nine artifacts that once belong to a fallen god who lost his name long ago."

"ENOUGH!" Without warning, Rex and Clover landed on the altar.

"Ah, Rex, I see you arrived." Indigo Frost didn't take his face off of Twilight once. Despite that, his snowflakes quickly surrounded Rex and Clover. "It's good to finally meet you in person and not in snowflakes."

"You will drop that now!"

"Really, do you want to hurt my hostages?" On that large ice spikes shot up around Crimson's and Granny Apple's throats.

"Please... "Twilight's voice could barely leave her shock filled mouth. "Don't hurt them."

Indigo Frost loosened his grip and the ice spikes faded back to snowflakes. He even dropped Crimson down.

"Only if you let me finish." Indigo Frost pointed toward Twilight.

"Fine..." Twilight's face dropped.

Bringing up the turquoise pearl he lamented his words so slowly. "This is the Void of Dreams. The heart of the hateful sirens, and once wielded by the pure Morpheus Morningstar himself." His eyes turned to Rex. "This one would be most useful to you, actually."

"What do you mean?" Rex question.

"It allows the wielder to bring their greatest dream to life. And what do you dream of most?"

Rex turned his face away. "I have no dreams."

"How about dying for one thing?" Indigo Frost's eyes narrowed at the fear this brought to Clover's face. "Or, maybe you wish to bring someone back?"

Rex's eyes widened at Indigo Frost's soft words. "What are you talking about? I?! Why would I need anyone?!" He raised his hands up and chains shot out from his shadow and flew toward Indigo Frost.

Indigo Frost used the snowflakes to raised Crimson into the line of fire. Instantly the chains stopped in mid-air. "Now that's a lie. Had this been her, you would not hesitate to go right through and stabbed me."

Rex pulled back his chains at those words. "Her...?"

"I guess you're not as monstrous as the legends use to say." He tilted his head slightly. "Or maybe it's because you replaced her so easily?" Indigo Frost gestured to Clover, "With a much younger model."

"Enough!" Rex's eyes narrowed and went back in for the attack again. He increased the speed of his chains, yet they still couldn't make their mark. All his chains bounced around never once hitting Crimson or Indigo Frost.

"Stop, please!" Twilight pleaded louder.

"You heard the ever so beautiful mare." The wendigo lowered and held his claws to Crimson's throat.

As Indigo Frost and Rex continued to talk Starlight's mind was on Twilight and Crimson. Her thoughts were flowing like a river on the dream. Was this what the being was trying to warn her about?

Her eyes kept on Crimson the entire time hoping it was all wrong. She tried her best to figure out a way to save him or maybe a way to get Twilight far from here at least. Despite all the time that had past she still couldn't see an opening at all. She looked to Crimson's face. Though his face was on Twilight, his eyes were on Starlight.

It seemed as if he was trying to gesture to her something important, but she couldn't gather what. Following his eyes downward she came upon a dagger in his pocket. Her sight quickly raced back to Twilight. She was seeing the same thing. A plan was forming, but it needed one more thing.

Knodding her head Starlight followed with her horn. She poured magic outward in a bright light that quickly filled the entire area. Twilight smiled, Rex caught on to his own plan and dropped his chains into his shadows as they got bigger.

All seemed to have their own plan on how everything was about to go down. And as the light got too bright to see Crimson launched forward.

* * *

Cold Blue landed on a destroyed building on the far end of the altar. He looked on to the silence as everything replayed for him.

"Looks like I was too late to witness the plan come to fruition." Turning his falcata downward he charged it with maroon colored magic. He stabbed it into the building and a shield shot outward. "I can't let this darkness escape or everything will be ruined."

Quickly his sight fell upon Twilight once more. He saw every bit of emotion in her face as while things moved too slowly for most to even process.

He frowned at the sight of blood flowing out over the altar. "I... I'm sorry this had to happen to you."

* * *

The light quickly faded and victory seemed assured as smiles grew on Twilight and Crimson's faces followed by cheers from Silver Pear and confusion from Rex and Clover… However, all that came to a halt as blood splattered over the altar.

Twilight's eye darted at the sight of Crimson's hand as it seemingly floated through the wendigo's chest… almost like there was nothing there at all.

Indigo Frost leaned his head down to the trembling Crimson and licked at the sweat pouring down the unicorn's face. "I'm sorry, you couldn't harm or even break me. For when it comes down to it. You can't kill a ghost." He pulled his pale arm back and Crimson's eyes went blank. "But a ghost can certainly kill you."

Crimson's body jolted with every pull and Twilight's eyes widened more and more. Indigo Frost lifted the gently beating heart of Crimson from the body. Each individual thread-thin veins slowly popped off with each movement.

Indigo Frost held it up high to Twilight. "This is what I'm truly here for." On that, he yanged hard breaking each string of both Crimson's heart and Twilight's mind. "To see you all break!" He brought the heart to his mouth and bit down, chomping it down in less than a few bites.

Twilight's face went pale and her legs buckled. Her Hand did little to hold her weapons up as they fell into the snow with an almost harder thud then Crimson's body as it too crashed to the ground at the same time. Her mouth fell open and tears pooled in her eyes.

Seeing the opening Rex and Clover rushed forward with attacks. Indigo Frost jumped away from the corpse and summoned up an ice wall. He turned to Bad Wolf and spoke, "Time to leave."

Hearing his words broke through the fear that had caked the beast's face the entire time. He walked over to Granny Apple and picked her up.

Meanwhile, Rex and Clover broke through the ice wall and charged forward. They chased after Indigo Frost as he jumped toward the clocktower.

At the same time, Silver Pear went after his mother. Bad Wolf saw him and swiped. The inugami jumped back and ran to the crowd. Silver Pear didn't hesitate to chase him down.

Rex got to the top of the clocktower and shouted to the wendigo. "Why would you do that? Why do you see fit to bring this pain?"

Indigo Frost stopped and looked over everything. "I wanted somewhere to show my might and power."

"You haven't any might. Only fear and hatred. And why here of all places?"

"Because this is the center of everything. All my joys and all my hatreds are in this single place. THIS! IS! WHERE! IT! ALL! BEGINS!"

* * *

Indigo Frost's echoes beat down over the town's roads and pathways. The sounds carried through the swirling of the ruins of the older buildings and the new buildings as they fell to the ground. Bouncing off the edges and slowly back to the clocktower and the altar that stood before it.

Tears fell from the face of a lavender mare as she shivered in place. She wasn't cold, despite the snow all around. Yet the shivers refused to leave her no matter what.

This lone mare gave little care to the echoes nor to the ponies, griffins, and sirens that ran from it. Sure she wanted to give some sort of reaction outside of her own self but her legs wouldn't answer. All she could do was stare at the fresh corpse lying on the altar in front of her.

Her mind replayed over the events that led to this yet even though the events had only happened seconds ago everything about them was a complete shadow. She couldn't see everything in a better light, but all she could pull fourth was darkness.

Darkness...

Darkness...

Darkness...

No sliver of light came to her. No signs, no hope, no kindness, no laughter, no generosity, no honesty, no loyalty, no friendship...

Friendship…

Friend…

Free…

Her mind screamed for an answer as she finally felt her leg move. On their own, or out of some base instinct her legs pulled her toward the corpse. Despite how much she wanted to know the reality of what she was seeing in front of her, her mind was now screaming at her to stop.

Don't look...

Don't look...

Don't look...

It's not real...

It's not real...

It's not real...

It's just a shadow...

It's just a shadow...

It's just a shadow...

Finally, she found herself in front of the corpse. It was just mere inches from her. The face of the dead dark lavender unicorn stallion stared back with the blankest stare. She reached out and brought it's forehead to her.

Her eyes widened and her mind could no longer deny reality. The shadows faded, the darkness lifted to show Crimson dead in Twilight's arms. On pure reaction, she squeezed tighter, wanting him to react, give some sign that maybe this wasn't real, but it was very real, no matter how much she didn't want it to be.

"Oh by the gods, it's an alicorn." A voice, so small yet it broke through Twilight's agony. She turned to see a small dark blue colt.

The colt reached out and placed his hand on her back, rubbing lightly. "Oh, lovely goddess don't weep!" The colt walked closer. "The good lord said when we die we go to a better place?"

In the background, Starlight watched in total fear. Everything was playing out just the dream. This meant only one thing to her, stop it. Stop it now!

Without any more hesitation, she rushed forward.

The colt attempted to calm Twilight's pain but just like before he was abruptly stopped by another voice, this one far older. "It's an alicorn, a famed immortal!"

Starlight quickly knocked the stone away as it flew. It landed on the ground barely missing Twilight's face.

"Just like the immortals that brought this war to us!" Another voice screamed out in rage.

Starlight landed between Twilight and the quickly growing crowd of anger, "No, it's not like that. It wasn't her fau-" Another stone flew, this time hitting her in the face.

"Move, mare. The witch must die!" A heavy stone punched Starlight in the stomach, pushing her to the ground.

"Get away from that colt!" Another stone flew. This time it finally made contact, tearing into the left side of Twilight's face. "You don't deserve to be near him, you are practically the one responsible for all of this."

The eyepatch fell to the ground.

Starlight reached out to Twilight yet all she could do was twist as great pain wrack her whole body. Her eyes looked to the crowd and her mind raced back to the dream.

Narrowing her eyes she found the brown donkey standing in the crowd. Sorrow and fear covered his face. She reached out to him for answers, maybe even help, but instead, she got one word and this didn't come from him...

"Failure..." A dark voice spoke from behind her. From Twilight...

"Get away from him!" More voices shouted to the alicorn.

"You are responsible for all of this!" Another throw...

"Don't you dare mutilate him, you selfish witch!" Another throw...

"You are as evil as that ghost!" Another throw...

"Stop it!" Starlight attempted to get up, but without any warning at all, she was knocked away by a massive pulse of maroon colored magic.

As quickly as it began it ended, the shouting stopped and echoes of the stones ended. The colt backed away.

The lone lavender alicorn turned away from the corpse and face the crowd as massive amounts of maroon smoke pushed forth from her mouth and eyes. At this moment she seemed devoid of all emotions, swinging her head around like a random beast.

Except one...

She lifted her head up and screamed so loud. The ground around her shook and cracked. With one swift move, the altar ripped open to reveal a vast pit. The ground crumbled around it almost in fear of it, yet the ground Twilight stood upon was so still.

The maroon smoke got heavy and flowed toward the pit. It flooded out like a tidal wave as all she do was shake and twist. The gas flowed to the ground moving across it like sludge. As fast as the pit formed the gunk filled every crevice before shooting upward.

Turning solid and as thick as the hardest crystal the maroon shot upward and formed a giant hand that continued to get bigger. Gripping tightly to Crimson as it grew taller and wider. Many looked in horror as it quickly out stood the clocktower that had always shined over all. More confusion was brought as the remaining ground that had not to shriek away was now bending upward around as if something was pulling each stone and pebble creating massive gashes in all directions.

Watchers could only back away. Starlight herself tried reaching Twilight but it was as if a mighty gravitation force was pushing her back with more power then she ever felt before. Out of nowhere birds nearby crash to the ground, squirrels twisted and fell out of trees, dogs and cats threw all their rage at the sight of the hand before quickly falling too, all these animals could do was show their anger and quickly die by an unknown force.

Finally, Twilight dropped her head and stopped screaming.

All continue to look in confusion. Horror had only faded slightly to the sheer height of the mighty sculpture in front of them. It's shadow nearly covered the entire city. Many stared at it... except for Starlight.

Starlight's eyes were on her teacher and the pain of her relation. The dream came true, this is what the voice wanted to hide from her. She failed. She did her best, but it was all for not. However, she wouldn't know the true horror of her hesitation until she finally heard Twilight speak.

"You want a monster..." Twilight's voice was... so cold. Devoid of all joy, or sorrow. All could be heard was one absolute thing that brought a chill to everyone's core and drove all their attention back to her as she finally turned around.

"Twilight..." Starlight walked forward. A faint smile filled her mind upon feeling the mysterious field gone.

"MONSTER! A SHATTERED MONSTER!" the mare's roars punched Starlight to the ground. Slowly the mare approached the group.

Rapidly the dark mare's head tilted left and right as her mane floated upward. Her eyes fell on the colt that had shown her kindness. Without any warning or even any signs of hesitation, she rushed at the colt pushing him to the ground. She pushed her hand onto his throat and pressed down hold. "Well, do you want a shattered freak of nature." The harder she pushed the more clear a smile formed on her lips as her horn pulsed a maroon color and her hand filled with magic. "I'll give you... the shattering... The Shattering Moon Li-"

The mare's words were stopped by a distinct noise. It was soft yet also very sharp. She loosened her grip only slightly and scanned around searching for the source until her eyes fell on a dark blue siren right behind her with a strange dagger-like ocarina in his mouth.

For a second Starlight through the ocarina's noise was the same as Indigo Frost's summoning spell, but this was somehow different. For one thing, despite the instrument resembling a weapon, it's sound gave no fear nor rage.

Cold Blue stood strong aiming his falcata right at her head. "Let the child go. Now!" The mare only growled at him. "I see, the brilliant mare I watched from afar is not even here anymore. There is only the..." His words stopped as he brought the strange instrument completely away from his mouth. "Just as they said, a bastard, a butcher, and a killer. That is all I see here."

Without any fear, Cold Blue charged forward and tackled the mare off of the child. Pressing his falcata right between the center of her breastplate he wrestled her far away from the group. Turning he yelled to Starlight, "Omnious get the child."

Starlight came to her senses with that word and ran over to the child and picked him up. She checked over and was glad to see no wounds at all. However, her mind's absolute thoughts were still on Twilight. "Okay, he's fine, now let go of my teacher-" She stopped at the sight of Cold Blue pulling back his falcata and aiming toward Twilight's heart.

"NO!" Starlight screamed forth as black and white magic quickly grabbed the weapon just as it pierced the armor. "Leave her." Starlight couldn't hold back her tears at this moment.

"WHY?! Tell me!"

"Becuase she's not a monster!"

"Tell that to them." Cold Blue pointed out to the townsfolk as he pushed down harder. The hold weakened enough for him to now puncture the skin.

"I... I..." Starlight's eyes fell on them. The very folks that who had just partied with her and Twilight in this very place not but yesterday. All were backed away in unheeded fear. "She's... my teacher... She's my friend."

Despite the roaring of the vicious beast below him Cold couldn't help but understand Starlight's words. "...Fine." On that, he turned his falcata to its hilt and bashed it against Twilight's head, knocking her out.

Getting up he walked over to Starlight. "She will live and as long as you keep her away from this altar she will wake back to normal. In fact," He tried rephrasing, "She will not remember this event ever happened."

Starlight let go of the child and let it run back its mother. Taking in a deep breath she walked back to Twilight, passing Cold Blue along the way. "Thank you-"

She was stopped when he placed his dagger-like ocarina to her throat. "Don't you dare thank me at all. She needs to die, not just to save these weak souls but to save herself." His eyes pointed to the mother of the colt they just save, much to Starlight's shock the mother's sight was filled with rage toward not just Twilight, but them as well. "They will never forget. They will never stop hating. This is the path of a monster and like it or not your teacher is now on that path."

"What... What should I do?"

"Take her and leave this place forever. No matter what happens in the future, no matter whether it is filled with hope or darkness, never return here-" He pulled the dagger away and sliced a rock that had flew toward them in half. "Because next time I won't save you from their... prejudice." On that final, he dropped his weapons to his sides and ran off from sight. "You have until sundown before they show you who they truly are."

Starlight didn't know at all how to react to what anything he said or everything she saw today. The one thing she knew for sure was she had to get Twilight out of sight for now and at least far away from this area and the monolith now standing in the center of it all.

Picking Twilight in magic she ran off where she assumed her friends from the tavern were still at. She hoped they would be able to help her in at least some way.

Meanwhile, Silver pear only stood still, his eyes were blank in utter confusion. He took Indigo Frost's arm all those years so why did it seem like this whole attack was all directed toward Twilight. His mind wanted to worry about his mother safety and who this Bad Wolf was yet he couldn't deny the curiosity to it all. How did it all connect?

Suddenly his eyes came upon the small ass of a certain seafoam green unicorn as she ran toward the battle flying through the sky. He didn't know how to compute everything that happened today, but he knew this mare had to have answers of some kind.

* * *

Up in the sky, Indigo Frost flew over random buildings letting his laughter echo over all that could hear him. Rex tried his best to keep up with the wendigo. He too wanted to question the reasons for this attack, but he was always brasher when in anger and in all of this pain that was one thing he couldn't deny.

Seeing that Indigo frost might get away Rex huffed in annoyance. Reaching up to his turban he didn't hesitate any longer.

"No, Rex not here!" Clover shouted.

"Yes, it has to be here." Rex tossed his turban to Clover and charged up magic in his curved blue horn. Maroon color flowed over it and lightly fuzzed at the top. Smoke tipped at his eyes and flowed down to his hands. Holding his fingers in a horn style he swung them around his body fast in exact thirty-two exes. "Shadow Spell Thirty-Two, Tentacles of the Kraken!"

Without warning the ground shook and all the nearby shadows in a thirty-two-meter radius spasmed before charging toward and central points that dotted the area.

The whole action made Indigo Frost stop in his tracks. Looking to each center he was surprised to see what looked like tentacles rising from them.

"Thule would be so happy to see a spell like this." Indigo Frost readied himself.

Rex stopped his movements for only a moment but kept his fingers in the right form. Quickly swinging one hand at a time made each tentacle move.

Indigo Frost chose to jump around, dodging all of them. However, as the seconds moved the tentacles went faster. It wasn't starting to get hard.

Rex increasing the number of tentacles and multiplied the speed. Meanwhile down on the ground, Clover made her way through the maze hoping the plan would work. All while neither knew of Silver Pear following everything.

"Do you think you could keep this up all day?" Indigo Frost questioned Rex's actions.

"Only long enough to get answers."

"Like..." Indigo Frost poised for Rex to question, but he knew all too well what each word would be.

"Why this plac-"

"Come on, I answered this one. Give me something better."

"Fine, why that mare?"

"When I fought her two years ago, I found her so interesting. She was willing to put friendship above her own life." The wendigo couldn't hold back his laughter. "Can you believe that? Friendship?!"

"Now I know?" Rex smirked himself.

"Know what?"

Rex's eyes fell to a glare. "That you could never be the Indigo Frost of legend. The great king of the wendigo would never mock such a thing."

"Who said I'm mocking it? I am Indigo Frost and this is the path I walk now."

"Then this is where your path ends?" Rex closed his fingers and smiled.

Indigo Frost's eyes widened at the sight of several strings now quickly flying toward him as the tentacles pulled back.

The strings wrapped tightly around Indigo Frost's body. They held down with so much force, much more then he could handle as he didn't even fight once they were in place. He simply took a breath and landed on a building.

Rex landed on the same building and walked right to him. "Too easy. All I had to do was keep you distracted long enough for Clover to pull the string across every tentacle." On that Clover jumped up to the same building.

"Hmm, looks like she is useful for something." Indigo Frost leered at the seafoam unicorn.

"Plus, it kind of help that others can see quick tactics as well." Silver Pear appeared seemingly out of nowhere and aimed his claymore at the wendigo's throat.

Clover and Rex put up their guard at the random guest but kept their eyes on Indigo Frost the entire time to make sure the icy beast didn't pull anything.

"What are you doing here, earth pony?" Rex questioned.

"Don't worry, I want answers just as much as you." Silver Pear walked closer and placed the tip of his weapon right again Indigo Frost's skin.

"Oh really. Do think I can give answers that only others know the truth of-"

"Quit twisting wordplay," Clover pulled her side of the strings tighter.

"No, it's not twisting, if anything it's very correct." Indigo Frost looked to Rex and leaned closer. "Though what you should really be asking why didn't I escape sooner after seeing this trap twice."

The wendigo's words brought shock and realization to Rex's eyes, especially when he noticed that Indigo Frost was actually looking beyond him. "Shit-"

Out of nowhere flames shot upward all around them, quickly consuming the strings. Indigo Frost ripped free as each string snapped and charged right at Rex, knocking them both off the building. He carried Rex off by the throat. Clover jumped backward off the building in search of the obvious ifrit helping the wendigo.

All three were gone before Silver Pear could even compute what just happened.

* * *

At the same time, Starlight continued to carry Twilight to safety. She didn't know what she was going to do nor where she was going to go, only that she had to take the words of the siren to heart. Even then there was somepony she was thinking of in the back of her mind that could be a strong possibility but she wouldn't be sure until she had another conversation with him, until then she had to find a place to hide.

Combining all of this thought and movement filled her with much loss of breath and large gaining of fear. She was almost panicking. She had no idea what was about to happen, but out of nowhere, something fell from the sky, stopping her movement instantly.

Rex crashed into a building just a few meters in front of her and Twilight. Indigo Frost was driving a massive ice stake through the umbrum's chest, impaling him to the wall.

"What?! Rex!" Starlight jumped back and dropped Twilight to the ground.

"Well, this seems to be our end." Indigo Frost pushed the stake deeper into Rex as he struggled at him. "You don't realize the irony of fighting me." Indigo Frost reached over and gripped hold of the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "Hmp, tell that goat hello for me." On that, he jumped back at the sight of Rex's eyes struggling to stay open.

At a distance, Sage watched with intrigue. "So now I will see why Rex is so important to this plan."

Indigo Frost smiled at the sight of Rex's body going limp. Once he was sure he turned to Starlight and Twilight. Particularly his sight fell on Twilight and the faint glow from the scar he gave her. "I see you were able to stop it. Interesting." On that, his body began to fade to distinctly red snowflakes. "I guess I will have to give it a better try next time." The red snowflakes floated away and out of sight

Once the wendigo left, Starlight didn't hesitate from running over to Rex. "No, no, no. You can't die here." She scanned him over with magic while her eyes flipped back and forth between him and Twilight. "If you die, then she..." She charged up her magic. "I can't let that happen-"

You'll find that to be pointless," Starswirl moved her with magic. "Now away."

Starlight looked in confusion to the sound of an old wizard's words. "What are you talking about? If I don't heal him he'll die-"

"AH!" Without warning, Rex jumped to attention and screamed out in agony. At the same time, the Dark Alicorn Amulet shined forth a bright maroon light followed by smoke.

Starlight was shocked to see that it was the exact same way the magic flowed out of Twilight before, only instead of it coming from the eyes, there was it coming out of the amulet. It was far finer then Twilight's ridged smoke. The maroon smoke gripped hold of the massive stake and pulled it free from Rex.

The umbrum fell to the ground and started coughing up maroon liquid as the smoke moved away. "Damn it," he screamed in between each splat of liquid.

Starlight's eyes widened at the sight of the smoke going to Rex's massive wound and sealing up it as if it was never there at all before returning to the amulet. "Impossible."

"No, very possible," the old wizard posed.

"Huh," Rex looked up and smiled, "Well, Starswirl how did you know he wouldn't at least let me sleep a little longer."

"As you said yourself, this wendigo claims to be Indigo Frost. The king was the original owner of the amulet so whether this is the real wendigo or a fake posing as him he got the Dark Alicorn Amulet's attention, therefore, I certain the spirit inside will be holding you on a tighter grip until everything is clear." Starswirl walked closer and pointed to the very object they were both talking about just as the maroon smoke fully reseeded.

"Great..." Rex huffed a deadpan as he got to his feet.

"Wait, you can't die!" Starlight could only point in shock.

"Actually quite the reverse." Starswirl turned to the unicorn. "You could say his life or death, in this case, has a chain over it."

"Yeah, Starswirl's words sum it up pretty well." Rex walked over to Starlight before stopping at the sight of Twilight. He didn't know why his eyes were brought over to her only that there was great familiarity in her face.

Starlight's eyes jumped again and she pointed to the old wizard, "Wait, Starswirl?"

"Yes, I am Starswirl." He walked closer and looked her over. "Hmm, look like that siren and Rex was right about you."

"Wait, siren?!" Rex jumped to guard, "When did Cold Blue get here?"

"Actually he just left after giving me a message. I wish you had told me as soon as possible."

"What? The Omnious, I only found out about her yesterday and the attack happened before I could get back to the ship."

"Now that's a lie since the attack started in the morning." Starswirl poofed cotton candy into Rex's mouth. "Though actually, it seems you didn't notice the other detail. Luckily Cold Blue did."

"What do you mean?" Starlight questioned. "What detail-" She was stopped as both her and Twilight was scanned by a bubbly red, yellow and black colored magic.

"Of course, my spell actually worked!" Starswirl smiled in joy. "Or at least it will."

"What..." Rex pulled the cotton candy free from his mouth and threw it to the ground. "Are you talking about?"

"Rex, it seems we have new guests joining us on our journey." Starswirl turned away.

"Wait, what? Isn't taking on that siren filly and her sisters enough-"

"Shush." Starswirl laughed at the poofing of another cotton candy into Rex's mouth.

"Wait, what going on here?" the voice of somepony caught them all off guard. Starlight quickly turned around to see Twilight slowly getting up.

"Teacher, don't rush yourself."

Twilight gestured Starlight away before fixing her stance and demanding again for answers. "Answer me now, lord of chaos!" She pointed right at Starswirl, making the old wizard stop in his tracks.

"Lord of Chaos? Huh? Oh, the future holds so many possibilities." Starswirl jumped for joy.

"What? Teacher, that Starswirl the Bearded not Disc-"

"I know what I said!" Twilight interrupted her student. "Which makes you," she pointed to Rex. "Rex Moba, Master of Shadowmancy... and my... and my ..." Before she could finish she fell to the ground.

Starlight quickly rushed over to her. "Don't push yourself..." She stopped her words upon noticing Twilight was out cold again. "Damn it!"

"Calm down, Lovely." Silver Pear walked up finally. "She is simply out of breath."

"Rex..." Clover also showed up without any delay.

"Hmm, did you find the ifrit?" Rex questioned.

"No." She gripped his hand tightly. "But I sensed your..."

"Don't worry, I'm still here." He raised his hand up to her mane.

"On that note, it's best that all of us head back to the ship." Starswirl gripped Twilight in his magic to help Starlight out. "Every single one."

"Wait, them too-" Rex stopped his words and jumped back from poofing cotton candy. "No more. Give me answers now!"

"Fine," Starswirl brought Twilight over to Rex. "Look into her face. Tell me who you see."

"I... I... I don't see anypony." Rex turned away. There was a fainting glint in his eyes. "Nothing at all."

"Okay, what do you see Clover?" Starswirl brought the alicorn over to her.

Clover looked Twilight over and at first, couldn't figure out what he meant. However the longer she looked the more her eyes widened. "No, there is no way."

"No way, but with time travel." Starlight walked over to them. She reached over and pulled at Rex's hand, bringing to Twilight's face. "I never considered the possibility you and she would ever meet, but she always considered it. Oh, how I hate when she is right?"

"What are you talking about? Rex pulled away. "Just who are you?"

"Well, my name is Starlight Glimmer and she is Twilight Sparkle." Starlight pointed right to Rex. "We from-" Suddenly cotton candy poofed into her mouth.

"I think that will be enough spoilers for now. We are taking them with us and this is final." Starswirl lowered Twilight over Starlight's shoulder and then held out his hand, gesturing his fingers out away from everypony. Making a few symbols followed by a snap a portal opened. "Chaos Spell Number One, Graceful Opening!"

On the other side was a pathway covered in a large amount of machinery that Starlight couldn't recognize. She knew she could trust her teacher and maybe even Starswirl if the legends were true, but seeing this powerful spell made her uneasy.

"We... need to leave..." Twilight's words barely spoke through her weakening mind.

"Fine, teach. Don't push yourself." Starlight tried to push her fear away and walked through the portal.

"I'm going too," Silver Pear commented.

"What?" Rex stepped in the earth pony's way. "Why would we need you-"

Silver Pear didn't hesitate to point his claymore at Rex's throat. "Becuase I might actually be useful to you."

"And how?" Clover knocked away the claymore with her staff.

"Well," Silver Pear leaned in close to the mare. "Little Missy, outside of the fact that wendigo took my mom, I know for a fact he isn't a ghost."

"What do you mean?" Starswirl posed.

"Sure, you can't kill a ghost, but you certainly can't wound one either." Silver Pear pulled back his claymore to his back and walked around Rex and Clover.

"So, you wounded him. When?!" Rex demanded.

"Not exactly wounded... I took his arm off." These final words stopped all three of them.

Silver Pear walked through the portal without any more problems in his way. Starswirl could only laugh as he followed. Clover walked through confused to everything that had happened. Meanwhile, Rex stood in place, seemingly not ready to leave.

He was so distracted by Silver pear's words that he didn't notice the brown spider crawling by and into the portal with the quickest movement.

"Impossible," Rex spatted once everypony was out of sight. "How could he?" He took a few steps to the portal before stopping at a sound. He turned to a building in the distance and flinched at nothing. "Or maybe this masked wendigo has more up his sleeve then it appears." On those final words, he walked through the portal.

After it vanished, back up on that very building Sage pulled himself free from the fear of being spotted. He had witnessed everything from the shadows and even helped Indigo Frost and his allies in certain moments during this whole thing. Now that everything seemed to be ending though all he could think on was Rex's final words.

"I have to know... "

* * *

Thousands of miles away in the far north beyond all reach of land floated a mighty fortress. Inside a weak tan unicorn in a teal cloak panic is his rush toward the center. He did his best to carry each scroll in his arms with care while making sure to not fall once. Though tripping he would fight through.

Each scroll had an orange tip and was written on black cloth. Though it was very very faint there was a pinch of writing on the front of each one. They were all named.

Soon he came upon a sparkling red tower that stood higher than any other. Taking a deep he slowed his breath and his movement before entering. He was still in a panic, but he couldn't let the one he was about to see observe that in him.

Passing through the door he gulped at the sight of seemingly innumerous stairs. He straightened the scrolls and took his first step of many. After a much longer time then he expected he finally reached the top.

Opening a final door he spotted a tall light orange unicorn stallion in black centipede-like armor with orange lines and a thin long red mane that reached all the way to the ground. Taking attention to not step on the mane he closer and present the scrolls. "I brought what you asked for, oh great, Lord Red."

"Well done, Clovis the Coward, I needed to compare other listed creatures." His horn glowed and brought all the scrolls, quickly unrolling every single one and floating them around his sight and the mirror in front of him.

At first, they seemed almost completely blank, but the same very very faint writing covered each one. The eyes of the orange unicorn glowed and the writing lite up with bright light.

Clovis gasped at the sight of his master's power and walked closer to the mirror. He noted an image being shown within the mirror. "Is that it-"

"I'm not sure, but what this claw might be it is not made from normal magic." The alicorn scanned through more scrolls, "No, I seen something before… The Broken One, he used to use these as markers."

"The fallen Ideal himself."

"Indeed…" He grimaced and increased his search. He looked over the scrolls until he came upon one with red writing. "Oh, this candidate. I do believe he was the last descendant I saw with this power."

"But my great, Lord Red. That is the scroll of Rex Moba."

"I know. And it seems the scroll noted him as far from the spot where the claw rose forth."

"That's impossible. His magic has incredible range, yes, but to be able to summon such a thing from that distance while fighting off those dangerous beasts at the same time just seems far too out his range."

"Oh Clovis, you have too much doubt." Lord Red couldn't hold back his laughter.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't doubting your word. Just his potential."

"But I never accused you of doubting me at all," Lord Red remarked back.

"I… I…" Clovis fell backward at his master's words. Though Lord Red didn't seem to have any open anger toward him Clovis could sense deep within there was indeed offense. "I wasn't doubting you, I swear!" He fell down to his knees and started to beg.

"Calm yourself." Lord Red's mane lifted up and padded Clovis on the head.

Clovis couldn't but smile at the kind gesture and did as he was told.

"Actually I noticed something else about this." Lord Red waved his hand over the mirror and the picture seemed to change. The claw was still there, but it was as if was in a different color now. "Unknown magic signature does seem to almost match Rex, but for the notes that it doesn't match as small as they are they do match another."

"Wait, are you saying two magics made this?"

"No… Something else…"

* * *

Hours later, deep in a slowly darkening room three souls were still bound to chairs. So much time had passed since Vanity's last words, and though the food in front of them had long lost its fresh smell their eyes had not left the sight of it.

Over in the far area of the room, a small crystal laid hidden from sight, yet in a big enough opening enough to see everything. It constantly watched all without loss. It observed every detail and transmitted it to another location.

On the other side of the feed was a room covered in nearly absolute darkness. For the moment the only light was from the feed. It was too small to show much of anything and especially it couldn't reveal the one watching.

Without warning the door flew open. Sage slowly stepped inside. "They told me you would head here next."

A pale white hand reached over and grasped into a bowl the was filled with eyeballs. "Yes, I am here."

"Watching them slowly turn on each other."

"Actually, no. While the sight of their growing hunger is a good backdrop, the true show is from out there." The pale hand pointed to the outside before dropping an eyeball into sharp jaws.

It was at this moment that Sage realized... "You aren't wearing your mask?" He attempted to step closer. Though opening the door had brought in more light, it still wasn't enough to show the full form on the being sitting in the room. With the idea of the mask off, curiosity grew in Sage's mind on possible answers on who was leading this group and who was using the name of a fallen king.

However, under all of that was another curiosity. "Wait, what true show?"

"Step closer and I will tell you."

Though the room was cold before, to Sage it now felt so much colder. Doing as he was told he walked into the room and closer to the figure covered in shadows, following his pale gesturing hand.

"What is this true show? Tell me?"

"Don't you hear it? It's been on all day." The hand stopped once Sage was close enough and reached back into the bowl and pulled out another eye. "Here, enjoy."

Sage was stopped in his thoughts to the eye placed in his hand. He couldn't deny that it was the very same eye of his siren ally that he himself had betrayed to get this close to everything.

"Eat, and mourn the Lamenta."

"The..." Sage's words fell short as he stared deep into the eyeball. Yes, he had just eaten this siren's arm, just days ago, but this was different. Sage's throat tightened and finally, on pure reaction, he turned away. Holding tightly to the eyeball he moved his hand up to his throat and pretended to chew before hiding the eyeball in his sleeve.

"That it, mourn the sounds of his Lamanta." The pale hand moved away to an object sitting on a table near the chair.

Sage looked in shock to see the object was the mask of Indigo Frost. Now he knew for sure what his words next would be. "Lamanta, whose Lamanta?"

"Don't you hear him? He's mourning as he always does. Every Winter Solstice." The pale hand gripped tightly to the skull. "That's the answer you are searching for right?"

"What?" Sage stopped at the sight of copper red eyes that replaced the sapphire eyes. They were staring right through his soul. "You knew what I wanted?"

"Of course. You wish to know who I am and I won't lie. Everything I did today was actually to destroy truth. Yet, in all of it, my father's mourning still echoed through it all."

"Wait... you mean the Great Howling."

"Yes, that sound that we all here every Winter Solstice. It is the cry of the true Indigo Frost as he mourns for his beloved." The pale hand loosened it tight grip on the mask. "But, maybe now this howling will be a joyous call of hope for his son's victory."

"You're... his..."

"I was born on the day of my mother's death." The pale hand picked up the mask and brought it to his face. "Born on the day this all began and this is decided the fate of my mission."

"Which is?"

They both stopped at the realization. The Great Howling had stopped. It all came to its close with the setting of the Sun of this day. The shortest day of the year.

And as the wendigo observed… "Don't worry, father.", He lifted the skull, "As by the right of taking your name and wearing your skull," He brought the skull up to his face. "I swore that you would never need to mourn for my mother ever again. So said I, the son of Indigo Frost, the new frost over the land of lies. Here to shine a brightness on their malice." He stepped up from his chair and walked over to the monitor. "Here to bring a torch to their hatred! Here to guide their souls through the river of sin!" Turning to the light and letting it finally shine upon him. "And with the truth in hand, all things will be known to be a reality! That every creature no matter the species, race, age, rank, right or position is life is and has always had a monster deep down inside them and my mission here is to bring that monster to the surface!"

* * *

Years ago, longer than any could remember a sole boat approached the barely standing the ruins of a castle on an island in the middle of a semi-frozen ocean. Two ponies walked out of the boat and marveled at the remains.

"So this is where it happened?" the brown stallion commented.

"Indeed. From what I heard this place" the blue stallion answered.

"Okay, let's see if we can find any treasure." The brown stallion ran off.

"Don't be in such a rush. We still have plenty of time before the actual salvage crew gets here." He pulled out a cigarette and lite it. Puffing slowly he noted everything in sight. From the frozen and toppled watchtower to the remains of frozen corpses. "Shit, those sirens certainly gave it they're all. Damn fools."

"Jackpot!" the brown stallion could hold back his shouting.

The blue stallion smirked at the sight of his friend swinging around a golden staff. Not really giving much care he threw his cigarette to the ground and ran toward him. Clearly, he should have been paying attention to the ground for halfway there he tripped and banged his leg against a broken door.

"FUCK!" The blue stallion grabbed at his leg.

"What happened?" The brown stallion ran back over.

"Don't you ever see a damn thing?" He hissed in pain.

"Said the one who tripped-" The brown stallion stopped at the sight of something catching his attention. "What the?"

"What? DId you find a golden crouch for my leg?"

"Look," The brown stallion reached over and slowly pulled out a baby from under the rubble.

"What? Where did that come from?"

"I don't know it was just laying here." The Brown stallion stood up and looked closer at the baby. "Hey, do you think this is…"

"Possibly." Annoyed that he was getting any help the blue stallion huffed and attempted to sit down. "Maybe the stories are true."

"That, that queen truly was a whore."

"Whether it was that, or some twisted form of mind control the proof is here right in your hands. That isn't no siren and the mere fact you can hold it without your hands freezing proves it can't be a true wendigo."

"But it looks so much like one." The brown couldn't hold back his laughter and he lightly rocked the baby up and down. "Child of a whore who thought it would be good to fuck a monster."

"As I said, whether she was one or not doesn't really matter. We are here not here to decide, we are here to simply steal from King's land. Though it's not like one could ever really love a monster anyway."

"Hmm, do you agree, little one?" The brown stallion smiled at the baby. "Are you just as much of a monster as your dad." The brown stallion's voice echoed with more laughter. "Just a monster! A freak of nature! You're going to be just beastly as he was, aren't you?!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. A bastard, a butcher, and a killer."

* * *

Author notes:

So yeah, to the ones that thought this was going to lead to Indigo kidnapping Twilight in a plan to resurrect his dead wife, i.e. The Mummy's plot I'm sorry to say that theory is somewhat wrong. Not to say I wasn't inspired by that idea while planning all of this out, I was very much inspired, just that I actually am planning my own take on a similar idea. Let just say some of the things like Twilight having a similar fur color was no coincidence. I've planned for everything, so much so that I can go ahead and reveal the truth about the son of Indigo Frost without any concern at all and even tell you that he made multiple appearances in this season without his mask. Maybe some of you can figure out who he really is, maybe you didn't.

Heck, if you already have an idea, post it in the comments I would love to hear any guesses. For now, the season is over, New episodes will start back up in August until then we are on summer break. Though I will be posting an Intermission chapter and a Full Season chapter during July, so keep an eye out for that.

Don't forget to comment, like or favorite. Whichever you think is best. Want to keep with updates, follow me here or on my Twitter. [url= /Gryphonstar5678] /Gryphonstar5678[/url]


	11. Season 2 Prologue: Right Arm

A lone mare sat on a frostbitten throne of crystal and ice in silence waiting for an answer that she knew would never come. She had been looking back for hours, wanting with all her might to remember back to that day when things were better. Looking back through these events even with an outsider's eyes wasn't helping at all. She could see so much and understand even less with each passing second. It mattered not whether these events were her life or someone else it couldn't give her the answers she was looking for.

"Why" She lamented and brought what appeared to be a dark blue almost glass to her face. She rubbed it's coldness across her face hoping the touch would wake her mind to the answers she hoped was there and she simply couldn't see.

"Why won't-" She was stopped as a loud booming sound echoed through the walls around her. The pillars shook but the walls never faltered once. The noise returned again and made everything vibrate, making her lean into her knees.

"Why won't they let me figure this out on my own?" She could almost weep but the tears wouldn't form. "I just don't know what to do now? I made a choice… the choice… but was it right?"

Sensing something, she turned toward her left. There was a window facing the north. Her eyes strained until they came upon the sight of an object that shined in the far distance. A tall crystal in the shape of a hand.

"Did I make the right choice?" She questioned louder as if she was getting more angry toward whoever she was talking to.

Reaching outward, the dark blue glass returned only for it to be shown to be none other than her right arm. Her entire right arm was a dark blue crystal limb. Reaching out higher to the window she pleaded, "Please, answer me, Crimson?!"

* * *

On the sunniest day thousand of miles, away and many years into the far off past a small town was going under construction. Once merely but ruins to all that looked upon it, now the new owners of the town wanted to see if they could bring it back to the glory it used to have.

At the front gate, buckets of paint stood on a stand waiting for more dips as a few unicorns went to work. Doing their best to make the place shine.

Two stallions and a small child approached the entrance.

One of the stallions, a brown one took in a deep smell. "Is that wet paint?"

"Why, yes it is?" A unicorn dropped down and smiled. "We are just about to finish the final touches on the renewal."

"What this place called?" The blue stallion standing beside the brown stallion asked.

"Gelum Voce Pia. We trying to rebuild it." He turned looked to the sign. "This place was once abandoned, so much so that it was covered in wendigoes if you could believe it."

"Really? Incredible. What was it before the place was invested?"

"A place of holy blessing from what I heard."

"Hmm, interesting." The brown stallion brought the child closer. "Did you hear that killer? You're the kind used to live here."

The unicorn looked in confusion to his words. He wasn't getting the obvious answer. At least not yet.

Without warning a gust of wind hit the sign, knocking the paint bucket downward. The unicorn rushed over to catch it in his magic but stopped at the strangest sight of all.

The liquid of the paint was floating. Looking around his eyes fell on the child as he waved his hand about. With each movement, the liquid became calmer. It was an incredible sight to see such a young child having so much control, but a closer look showed no magic being used at all or at least none that could be clearly seen. Was this child truly this strong or was there other forces at play here?

The child was so happy at the sight of the liquid that he actually laughed a few times before setting it back down in the bucket.

"Wow."

"I know, this little butcher is so strong already." The brown stallion cheered.

"What his name?" The unicorn questioned.

"His name…" The brown stallion picked up and child and looked directly into his eyes. The sight of his red eyes, such a unique color of red rarely seen anywhere else in the world. "His name is…"

* * *

"Lord Frost, Lord Frost," a single voice woke the wendigo up from his slumber.

The icy beast slowly opened his red eyes and pushed on some glass. His eyes glowed for a moment and the liquid covering his body lowered with the sounds of tubes. The room was completely dark yet he had no problems navigating his arm through the blackness. He reached over to the skull of his father and brought it over.

He placed the mask over his face and his red eyes filled with his father's magic turning them sapphire blue. "You can enter now, my loyal priest."

The door opened and shined a bright light into the room. It reveals the wendigo lying in a tank. The room itself was devoid of furnishes of any kind outside of the tank he slept in there was a small rack where his clothes hung, a chair for him to sit and stand for the skull he wore.

"Morning has arrived." Carnival Carnage slowly rolled in on his unicycle. "Thule has already left for his mission, Kray has sent word for our mission."

"So that old alicorn has deciphered more of my father's notes," Indigo Frost sat and slowly exited the tank.

The wendigo was completely naked. In the light, one could see the massive amount of old lashes and tears that covered his entire body.

The mere sight of each wound always brought fear from his priest. "Do they... do they still hurt?!"

"Yes." Indigo Frost kept a cool face to his priest's questions. "Every time I step out of that chamber."

Lifting his hands upward caused all the liquid covering his body to move off of him quite easily and back into the tank's tubes. Once dry he walked over to the clothes and put them back on once more. He made sure to be careful with each part as all were made from the pelts and furs of his enemies.

Taking a deep breath he snapped the pants together before finally turning to face the priest. "I will go see somepony personally before we search for the next alathar."

"Are you sure? Are you sure that is wise?"

"Do you doubt me?" Indigo Frost walked closer.

"No of course not, my great lord, my great lord." Carnival lowered his head and prayed softly.

"Calm yourself." Indigo Frost placed his hand on Carnival's head. "I have everything planned out to the finest point. I wish to simply meet with another one of our allies for the next phase of the plan. There is something I must confirm before we step closer." He walked over to the doorway.

Carnival stood still and thoughts traced over his mind. Finally, as his lord grabbed the door he quickly turned around and asked, "Does this have to do with that mare?"

"Do not worry, Twilight is not the focus of this current mission." Indigo Frost's eyes narrowed. "There is a promise that must be kept."

* * *

Twenty years before current time...

Legs kicked through the thickening puddles. The rain beat hard against his face as the lone white unicorn push through the weather. He was carrying something tight to his chest. So much panic and fear painted on his face far more than the rain as he wished to not drop it over even loosen his grip of it.

The slick ground was far crueler to him than the rain. It flipped between gripping tightly to his feet to quickly letting go without any warning. He pushed on not letting it hold him back.

Eventually, the rushing caught up with him as he found himself smashing face-first into the mud. He screamed out to the stuff in his hand as he flew through the air. The mud of the ground quickly punched his mouth shut. The sounds of cracking filled his heart with so much fear.

"No, no, no," He hit the ground with his fist multiple times before finally picking himself up to his knees. His eyes strained at the sight of the shattered glass. The rain was quickly diluting the viscous liquid turning it slow movement into a very fast drain.

Rushing over he scratched at the liquid in vain. "Get back in there!" All he pulled out was more mud. Without warning a sharp piece of glass stabbed into the hand. He quickly pulled back in pain, scraping at the bloody wound. "No, no, DAMN IT!" he yanked the glass out and fell on to his elbow.

He turned back to the liquid, but it was too late. Despite his struggles, the stuff had fully drained away. "No..." His face dropped to the ground. "Now what will I do?" Tears poured forth. "I... I... I can't lose her."

The rain stopped without warning, yet the unicorn didn't seem to care. Even when snowflakes replaced the drops of rain he refused to lift his head up. He simply stayed in place, hoping this despair would consume him. It was almost like selfishness was convincing him to stay in place to not see her disappointment.

"You can't lose her?" A voice spoke outward.

The white unicorn quickly lifted his head only to jump at the sight of a wendigo standing a few meters away. "What? Stay back?" He reached for his sword.

"Stop," The wendigo held out his hand is a gesture of peace. "Answer my question, You can't lose her?"

"My..." The white unicorn stopped. His thoughts paused for a moment over this creature. For what reason could a wendigo want to know such an answer? Weren't they just wild beast? Feasters of the intelligent, could one ever understand his pain?

"Answer me, please." The wendigo walked closer, but ever so slowly.

The white unicorn jumped back again and pulled out his sword.

"I... I see..." The wendigo stopped his advance and retreated his hand. "Looks like I was wrong. I thought you would be different from others."

It was at that moment the white unicorn realized the truth and dropped his sword. "No, it's not like that..." He attempted to stand up. "My... my daughter is very sick."

"And you wish not to lose her, right?" The wendigo walked closer and reached his hand out.

"Yes." The white unicorn was still hesitant at first but soon took the wendigo's hand.

"Then I promise to help you." The wendigo smiled.

* * *

Author notes:

Thank you all for giving this a read. It is truly important for the next part of the story. These fours scenes hold great significance in the coming parts. From the mare with a crystal arm to a promise that needed to be kept they all will affect the story. In particular, hold the promise in mind for this season and maybe you can spot the mystery before everything is fully revealed.

Don't forget to comment, like or favorite. Whichever you think is best. Want to keep with updates, follow me here or on my Twitter. /Gryphonstar5678


	12. S2 Chapter 10: Hunger Begins

A yellow glow flowed over twists of wood. Slowly the wood vibrated until the tree branch moved to one side. Another branch gripped in the same glow followed suit and another mirrored the same movement. Soon a pathway formed and two alicorns walked through it, followed by their choice number of guards.

Celestia huffed at her magical glow as she continued in what she already considered long ago as a fruitless search. Golden Williams on the other hand despite not being in a place of comfort as shown by the excessive sweat and caution in his movement was curious about his surroundings nonetheless and above all curious about the rumors of this forest.

They walked a bit further before stopping at a stump. The sight of which made Celestia huff louder and drop her magical grip. "That's it, I'm blowing that stump up!" She charged up a spell.

"Now, now, now, just because this is our fifteenth times seeing that same stump doesn't mean you should lose your cool." Golden Williams quickly walked over and in front of her attack.

"You didn't jap your foot into the same stump five times in a row."

"That was yesterday and even then, you haven't done that once today."

"Doesn't mean it won't happen... again." She pushed him aside and walked further ahead.

"Okay, okay. No one besides you and Starswirl know more about chaos theory. But that doesn't approve that every repeat will eventually lead to a crash."

"That is not how it works. It's recklessness and loss of patience combined with repeating events and occasional randomness-" Celestia stopped upon tripping over a random branch. "That leads to chaos."

"And pain. Fascinating."

"Indeed." She pushed herself up and finally took in a deep breath.

"At least you adapt quickly... Sometimes."

"Well, Starswirl has always been better at predicting chaotic moments." Celestia knocked off some leaves before turning back to the tree stump to sit down. "Really I'm just wondering how long I have to be out here."

"Aunty said-"

"I know what she said and I know the orders come from my father. But it has been two years since that light magic event and I have still yet to find the source. The most I have ever found was a massive trench in the ground where something might have once been."

"Yes, but that day was a good find. Wasn't it?"

"How? There were no traces of magic. That much magic would have not faded away so quickly." Celestia laid her head down and let her mane fall around her face.

"Don't get too emo on me." Golden Williams walked over and leaned his elbows on her back.

"Hey, I'm not the emo!"

"Oh, that's right. Your sister is that. You're the preppy one."

"Now you are just being mean." She pushed him off and stood back up. "I'm not really annoyed. It just that we have been out here for days and still found nothing."

"You weren't so annoyed for the first few days."

"Well, one, because you refused to follow Aunty's orders about talking to your father and joined my out here."

"I knew talking to father would be pointless now anyway."

"And two, when I felt that." She pointed to the north.

"The bubbling of war?"

"No, that large source of dark magic. Don't tell me you didn't sense it."

"Actually I did notice it when it first appeared. But it's dark magic, not light. Ergo it serves no purpose pondering on it." Golden Williams turned away from it.

"No purpose. That source when it first shot out was easily ten times stronger than any other magical event I have ever experienced. All except for the one from the source I have been spending all of these days looking for."

"Yes, but again, it is dark magic so it serves me no purpose." Golden Williams' horn glowed yellow before quickly turning a bold smoky blue. "This," he pointed to his horn. "Is what I desire. Not red."

"Well, I'm not a light magic user, nor am I part of that bloodline, so it serves better for me to check all forms."

"Hmm, you bring up a good quandary." Golden Williams stroked his goaty. "How to better serve both needs. Hmm..." His eyes narrowed and thought formed. "How about we split up teams?"

"Really?" Celestia jumped up and reached over for his hands, bringing them together between them. "Would you do that for me?"

"Of course."

"Goody." Celestia swung the hands up and down a few times before abruptly stopping. "No, that's no good. Father's orders were for me to check the light source out, not you."

"Give no worry. He won't know."

"Really!" She cheered at his nodded before leaning over and giving him a few kisses on the cheek. "Thank you, thank you, cousin."

"Enough, enough. Anymore show of emotions and I might consider reattempting that old proposal from years ago." Golden Williams laughed aloud before quickly sneering as Celestia stepped on his foot.

"You will do no such thing."

"Of course, of course. You have eyes for another."

"Wait, is it that obvious." Celestia pulled away from him completely.

"Just get moving." Golden Williams couldn't hold back his laughter again before shewing her away.

"Oh, of course." She turned to her guards and nodded to them to take to the sky and she quickly followed. "Thank you again."

"Don't worry I've got this handle." He smiled at her leaving.

Nails tore forth and ripped at the meat on the plates. Bringing the flesh up to vicious teeth, the chunks were quickly shredded and swiftly swallowed. Jaws dripped with drool and juices moved with incredible voracious speed as each piece came near it. The claws at the same time did their best to keep it all moving without joining the meat inside the mouth and down to the stomach.

As this fury of motions happened on two sides a lone figure in the center sat back in disgust. The rage was the only thing keeping this lone stallion from puking at the sight of it all. Instead, he tried to again search for any means of freedom from the room around him.

The tentacles that had been holding them for days had long left but he was still stuck to his chair unable to move. He was forced to either watch this horror or soon join in. He would rather concentrate his mind on other things like escaping and the chafing his legs had received for sitting still for so long.

He knew he couldn't give up. Sitting here all this time gave him plenty to think about and he was certain now to his capture's true plans. And he knew for certain, or at least he hoped with all his might that this plan wasn't just to have him simply give into cannibalism.

In the end, he knew he would have to be patient and hold on to his will power for as long as possible.

On the other side of the room, a crystal hidden from all sight continued to watch his attempts with intrigue. This crystal's images fed into a new room. It was certainly not the same room that had been watching them before.

This new room was a pale white room with much equipment akin to a doctor's office. There Vanity Claymore occasionally watched while working on some of Carnival Carnage's stitches. "Hmm, it seems Star Stone is still fighting it."

"Nearly ten days, nearly ten days isn't that bad for pushing one's limits," Carnival commented while lifting his arm up.

Vanity followed suit fixing the stitches under the priest's armpit. "It will be ten full days in a few more hours, though I wish I could have giving Lord Frost a better time table for those three. Apparently, when comparing three different species, three different ages, three different forms of health and two different genders one can make mistakes."

"Mistakes aren't part of it." A door behind her opened and Sage stepped in. "Star Stone is one of the most stubborn beings I have ever know-" He stopped upon noticing that Vanity's tight pants were pointing right at the door. He quickly moved over to the monitor and far from the sight of her ass before continuing. "He will not falter easily."

"Well, maybe you can tell me more about 'that' later." Vanity winked at him seemingly acknowledgment of his inadvertent stare. Luckily the perverted priest in the room she was currently working on didn't catch on to the thought that crossed both ifirts' minds.

"Right..." Sage walked closer to the monitor and finally noted the obvious. "Where is Thule?"

"Oh, he is currently on the surface gathering up details since he is the only one that is unknown to the alicorns as being on Lord Frost's side and thus can hide in plain sight more easily."

"And, the Night Brothers have still yet to arrive?"

"Those two were born in luxury and then placed in harsh prisons. I'm sure those two are simply taking their time enjoying the sights. Besides those are more of a surprise to a certain enemy rather then an extremely important part of the plan."

"What about the inugami?"

"Oh, Bad Wolf and our hostage were sent ahead of us to the Earth Pony Conglomerate. Though I'm sure he will be back soon."

"What about me?" Sage questioned. "No one even knows that the eight limbs are missing yet, so I shouldn't I have as much freedom as he does?"

Vanity placed down her tools and turned toward Sage. "What? Do you wish to go outside?"

"No, I was outside days ago?"

"Yes, but that was before you knew of Lord Frost's true identity." She slowly walked to him with each word.

"So just because I know that he is half wendigo I can't leave." Sage didn't even catch on to her movements.

"No, you see he has a plan special for you and you alone." She got right up next to his right side before quickly moving to his left side. Her eyes were completely away from him as if she was looking for something. "I realize that you are getting bored here, but your purpose will become clear soon. Until then." She reached over in front of him and grabbed at a shot that was laying on the monitor's table before walking back to Carnival. "I need to get Carnival ready for his next mission."

"Which is?"

"Oh, he needs to spread our great lord's word." She lifted the shot upward and harshly stabbed the needle tip right into Carnival's lower abdomen.

Carnival pulled in pain before jumping off the table and walking to a hanger and grabbed his clothes. Sage inadvertently took note of the earth pony's naked body and noticed that despite the priest very perverted nature he had no lower features of any kind.

"Freaky, isn't it?" Vanity noted his confused stare. "I gave the same reaction when I found out." She leaned back onto her desk and laughed as Carnival exited.

"Right..." Sage swung his head back and forth to try and get the thought out of his head. Attempting to readjust the subject he again questioned. "So everyone in this group, whatever our name is, has a purpose."

"Well, first off we call ourselves the Nine Families. Though there is not nine of us yet. Lord Frost did choose nine beings exclusively for this group."

"So... he knew I would join."

"Of course, he can read anyone extremely well. That gives him the right to lead us." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bottle with a red lid. "He knows all our strengths and weaknesses." She quickly looked at the bottle before putting away it just as fast. "And for that reason, he has a purpose for all of us."

"Even for that mare, Twil... Twil..."

"Twilight, yes." Vanity's smile quickly vanished at that name. "Even she has a purpose in his plan."

"You mean he's not finished with her."

"Nope, he has much more for her."

"What about the rest of you?" Sage finally let his guard down a little and pushed himself away from the table and to the examining area. "I mean, I'm one of the best politicians out there and if there is one thing I know is planning. A plan of this size would take far more than nine."

"You don't even know the full plan yet you are bold enough to challenge such ideas." Vanity laughed and whispered to herself, "Now I almost see the real you."

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, nothing." She shrugged. "We are nine families. We are his most important pieces, but truthfully I believe he has agents everywhere. And even though not the most loyal of Carnival know the whole plan we can still follow it without any hesitation."

"And why is that?"

"Becuase he promised to bring us from darkness and out to the light."

"That's paraphrasing."

"Isn't it always. No matter how he or Thule saids it, it always has the same meaning."

"And that is...?"

"Ha, ha, ha. So you haven't figured it out yet." Vanity walked over and padded him on the back. "Don't worry, you will soon, once you let down that guard of your's completely."

Far away on another doctor's examining table, Twilight laid while a bright light covering most of her apparently naked body. "Are you sure about this?" Twilight questioned as the cold touch of Lady Cat's tools moved over her body.

"You wanted me to check you over and I am."

"She means do I have to be in here?" Starlight sat in the back of the room with a blindfold over her face. "I mean, yes, I can't see anything, but really is there a point for me to be here while you examine my teacher."

"You know her better then we do so you can tell me which of these scars are the oldest and which are the newest so I can ascertain the strange pain you have been reporting since you arrived on this ship." Lady Cat leaned over and poked Twilight's belly button. "Huh, you're an inny."

"I already know that-" Twilight stopped at some sharp pain from the movement.

"Did I find it?"

"No, you just hit an old wound."

"Huh, old..." She poked down deeper only bringing out more annoyance at of Twilight.

"Just stop it's not there." Twilight pulled free of her straps and sat up. "Look," She took Lady Cat's hand and brought it over to a different spot. "This scar is the one that is hurting."

"Fine, fine, fine. I'll check out that spot." Lady Cat huffed.

Unbeknownst to Twilight through a nearby mirror, Starswirl was watching from another room, "Intriguing. Every part of her is a fully realized adult alicorn, yet she's not even reached her late twenties yet. Most wouldn't reach such form until their forties or even fifties."

"So what is this? An effect of the time travel?" Clover questioned.

"Actually, that would explain less. My time spell would have stopped their aging until after they returned to their proper timeline. It wouldn't explain why Twilight Sparkle is so young, in not only height but even in biology."

"Is this why you wanted to bring her aboard this airship?" Clover turned away from the viewing and looked toward the wall.

"I have many reasons. This being the first reason, the second was the fact she used dark magic so close to the old Altar of Agonía and lived, and third being..."

"A reason you still won't tell us." Clover inched at her throat.

"It so fascinating," Starswirl snapped his fingers and poofed a cup of chocolate milk into Clover's hand and a scroll into his other hand. "If Cold Blue's words are to be believed this mare nearly reached a second ascension when she unleashed all that dark magic near that altar."

"Indeed, I was nearby and the blast nearly knocked me off my feet."

Starswirl twisted his hand about the viewing making it change color. "But out of everything I've learned from this mare, what I find most interesting though are these scars." He pointed out to one after the other. "The wound on her neck seems to be the oldest. Possibly done by a crystal rope. Meanwhile, the one on her stomach seemed to be the most devastating. It appears to have been a heavy bashing followed by a massive stab that went all there way through. Due to the sign of tachyon particles over these spots as well show that each one of them clearly happened on her journey through time."

"Such a wound would have killed her if she wasn't an alicorn."

"And yet she's chosen to hide as a unicorn when in public." Starswirl zoomed into a scar on her eye. "Truly amazing."

"Kind of reminds me of when I first saw Rex's scars."

"Huh." Starswirl snapped his fingers again and a strange metal cap with lights appeared on his head. "That is an unusual parallel I need to think on. All these details have been booming through my head. Hmm, I might need to think of this more in private." He lifted his legs into the air and floated toward the door. "Make sure to close up when you're done."

"I'm done? You're the one who wanted to examine her."

"Yes, but you were the one complaining of her screeches of pain throughout the night." Starswirl exited the room.

"That because you put her room right next to mine!" She yelled back at him in annoyance. Clover couldn't hold back her huffed at Starswirl leaving and finally took a drink of her chocolate milk. She quickly pulled back at the fact it tasted more like banana rather than chocolate.

Back on the other side of the mirror Lady Cat moved her sight in closer to the new scar in question much to the heavy regret of Twilight since the batpony was now rubbing her big hands all over the scar... which happened to be just above her cleavage.

The scar was certainly different from the others. It was the freshest, but it was also a different color. It shined a dark blue much like the scar over her eye, but deep in the center of the wound, a small maroon red could be seen in the shape of a perfect vertical slit.

"Did she find it yet, teacher?" Starlight questioned aloud.

"Yeah... Uhmftpu, she found it." Twilight tried to keep herself calm especially since she hadn't really let anypony outside of her reach into that spot in years. Last time being a one night stand with Rainbow Dash. "Oh, uh, uh okay. Stop!" She huffed in annoyance and blush before puffing to the far end of the table. "I think you've done enough." Twilight's horn glowed and brought her clothes over with magic.

"So does that mean I can take this blindfold off?"

"Not yet!" Lady Cat gave her own huff. "I need to know about a certain scar..."

"Which one." Starlight jumped up and reached for her blindfold and attempted to get free. "I can't see anything still!"

"The one between her d cup."

"Between her... between her... Wait, Teach, you never told me you were a D cup." Starlight couldn't hold back her laughter.

"I never considered that detail as a needed subject of your training!" Twilight pulled up her pants and dress.

Lady Cat placed her hand over Twilight's mouth and stopped everything. "Just tell me if she ever received a scar around her cleavage area."

"Well..." Starlight stopped her struggles and thought about it. "There was that moment that dark blue siren was atop of her."

"Dark blue siren?!" Twilight pulled free and shouted aloud. "When did I have a dark blue siren on top of me?"

"While the dark magic was overloading you. He was the one who managed to knock you out."

"Oh..." Twilight stopped her fears. Finally, she got her shirt over her face. However, before she could get it over her chest, Lady Cat reached over again without warning.

"Wait, a dark blue siren?" The batpony questioned as she ran her hand along the scar in an up and down motion. "Oh, you must mean Cold Blue. Fredricson mentioned him a few times. Apparently, the siren is Rex's oldest rival."

"Cold Blue, huh. Celestia never mentioned him during her stories of Rex." Twilight quickly pulled away again and fixed her shirt over her upper body. Once she was sure she was fully clothed her horn glowed and poofed away the blindfold from Starlight's skull.

"Oh finally." Starlight gave a sigh of relief. "So about that scar? Any reason why a wound from his blade would cause such pain."

"Huh, unsure. It may very well be that the pain isn't from the scar, but being the focal point of the pain from a different source since all I can tell is that it's just a fresh new scar." Lady Cat walked over to the sink to wash her hands.

"And that source might be..." Twilight gave a long pause hoping for some answer.

"Not sure." Both Twilight and Starlight deadpanned to her answer. Lady Cat reached into her medicine cabinet and pulled out a bottle with a red lid. "Here, take some painkillers for now." She poured out two. "This should be good for the week." She presented them to Twilight. "Just be careful, they can be addictive."

"Okay," Twilight took the pills and popped them down her throat. She stopped halfway at the sound of yelling.

"Now what?" Lady turned toward the door.

"Are you okay, teach?" Starlight padded Twilight's back allowing her to swallow the pills.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Twilight exhaled heavily. "What is happening out there?"

"I don't know..." Starlight looked toward the door as Lady Cat exited. "Wait, Silver Pear?!" She jumped away at the sound of his voice.

Both of them ran out the door. Down they moved through metal hallways until they came to a large room with an arena in the center. Once they saw what was happening their fears quickly faded.

Silver Pear was fighting Rex in the center of the arena. This had happened four times now since they arrived on the ship and it was clear this fight would be no different.

"They don't give up," Starlight leaned onto a bar.

"Well, we have always known Silver Pear to be pretty stubborn." Twilight smiled and took a seat. "Plus I read in many books how Rex always stood forward in battle with the strongest will of any warrior."

"Strongest Will huh?" Clover's voice peeked their ears. "Is that how you know of Rex in this future you herald from or is he alive in your time too."

"Well, the truth is I don't think I've met him in person before now."

"You don't think. What do you mean by that?" Clover could only raise an eyebrow to the alicorn's words.

"I mean this is the first time I've met him." Twilight leaned over and held her head up with her hands and seemed to hum. "But, it feels like I've always known him."

"Well, if it is indeed true, you have always known him." Starlight laughed. "I mean he is your-" She was quickly stopped by some cotton candy appearing in her mouth.

Starswirl appeared out of nowhere and laughed at Starlight. "Clearly, you don't get the concept of spoilers."

"No, master. I want to know!" Clover moved closer.

"I'm sorry, but that is up to Twilight." Starswirl looked to Twilight and shook his head. Twilight replied with her own nod.

Getting no once more only brought anger to Clover. Especially at the sight of Starlight getting free and leaning over to Twilight's ear and whispering something. Clover filled her horn with magic and deep inside her eardrums widened. For a short moment, she could hear the whispering.

"Is the reason you won't tell them is because you think Clover might be..." Starlight stopped before she could finish as if Twilight knew what her words would be. Twilight only nodded and giggled heavily in what Clover could only tell was incredible joy.

Clover leaned over to try and hear more by then, the signal went completely silent. She looked up to her horn and only became more confused at the sight of the glowing light still in place. She raised her hand up to her ears hoping to get an answer only to pull back at the touch of fluff.

Quickly feeling again she found pink earmuffs covering her skull. Her eyes raced over to Starswirl before pulling them off. She huffed at the bunny ears on the top of them and threw them to the side.

She dropped the spell and decided to watch the fight.

Silver Pear swung forward and Rex quickly ducked into his shadow and popped out of Silver Pear's own shadow behind him. The earth pony followed with flipping his claymore backward incredibly fast and blocked the attacked and jumped. Silver Pear smiled as he quickly turned back around and threw his claymore right at Rex. However before he could even realize it, chains pulled his legs down and bashed his head into the hilt of his claymore, changing it's direction. Rex didn't need to duck again and simply smiled as the claymore barely missed by mere inches.

The claymore bounced over and nearly hit the crowd. Starlight jumped back, while Clover and Twilight kept their place with no sign of fear at all. The blade tip stabbed right into the ground between them.

"Careful!" Starlight shouted.

"Sorry, Lovely. Didn't see you there." Silver Pear waved at her with a bold grin before slamming into the ground.

"Looks like I win again." Rex stretched his arm toward the claymore and its shadow opened up and the weapon fell inside and pulled out through Silver Pear's shadow. "Next time, don't assume the reckless route. It only makes you lose quicker." He held out his hand to the earth pony as his chains released.

"Thanks for the tip." Silver Pear took the help and stood up. Placing his claymore back in his coat, he moved to dust himself off.

Rex retracted his chains completely and walked over to the group. "I think that will be it for today."

Starswirl placed his hands together and smiled "Indeed, night time will be here soon."

"Speaking of which," Fredricson walked in, "We will be arriving at the capital of the Unicorn Providence by tomorrow morning."

"Good," Rex walked over to the exit. "The sooner we talk to Princess Platinum, the better."

All of them took those words with a huff of annoyance as some of them were actually enjoying the fight. They got up either way and made their way to the exit. All except for Silver Pear, who instead looked off to somewhere else.

"Silver Pear, you coming?" Starlight questioned as she was the last one out the door.

"Sure, if you will join me," He gave her an evil grin.

"NO!" She yelled. "I was just curious since it looked like your mind was somewhere else."

"Nah, it okay. I'll get to bed in a minute." He quickly shewed her away.

"Okay..." She closed the door and left him completely alone.

With the room empty and the lights slowly dimming Silver Pear could only sigh before softly saying, "Good night, mom."

Miles away in the dimming evening sky a small shine could be seen. The sky was clear enough that this glistening light was distinctly red. However, it was not the same red of the red snowflakes that Indigo Frost took the form of, instead the hue was more brown in tone, reddish like rust.

The rust colored shine traced across the sky at incredible speeds before landing on the ground in front of four mighty towers. A closer look revealed the shine was coming from a massive orb. The orb was perfectly shaped into a spherical almost egg shape devoid of any imperfections at all. It was one solid color, somehow even keeping its hue despite the fading light.

Without warning, it opened up and yet still gave no sign of imperfection in this new movement. Stepping out was an all too familiar alicorn. Blood Diamond quickly popped his neck and adjusted his body upon exiting. "It seems we have arrived..." He stopped and mused, "That unicorn didn't show up to meet us. We would almost consider it an insult if we weren't supposedly at war." He stopped his words with a pause and looked around.

After a quick look, he pulled a crystal out of his pocket and smashed it on the ground. Smoke puffed up from the shattered remains and twisted into a swirl in the sky. Out of the swirl, Cold Blue landed.

"Thank you again, my Lord Blood Diamond, for this fast travel." Cold Blue noted with a bow.

"Well, I knew you would rather travel by teleport then the Celestial Orb." Blood Diamond turned around and waved his hand over the orb. The orb's door closed and the entire thing shrunk down to the size of a marble.

"Of course, but why use such travel anyway. Your gems are far faster."

"A sign of respect. Respect of which the Princess of the unicorn's doesn't seem to share." Blood Diamond twirled his hand and the orb floated up to his hand and then to his pocket.

"How unfortunate..." Cold Blue rose up and kept his hand to his guard. "Do you which for me to find her?"

"That won't be necessary." Blood Diamond held up his hand to his chin. "For now, follow us. We need to find a way into this clearly abandon monument." His horn glowed a green hue and the dust in front of him and his next steps were quickly brushed away.

"If your brother was here he would certainly have fainted at this sight."

"Indeed Golden Williams often had a weakness toward dirt and grime. A weakness we simply don't care for. But?"

"But?" Cold Blue was indeed questioning unneeded questions, but at the same time he knew his master always would rather have someone to talk to, or else he would begin talking to himself. Cold Blue however also took good care in each of his words for though Blood Diamond was not as easily offended as Gold Williams he did indeed have a temper.

"Rather the fact this place has not had a good upkeep is a complete disrespect for all alicorns in general." Blood Diamond reached out his hands to the steps and even statues once they came into view. "This place was once the center of unicorn and alicorn relations."

"A meeting place?"

"A place of peace, now only caked in the dust of war." Blood Diamond dragged his fingers over the rails and pulled back. He gestured to Cold Blue.

Cold Blue pulled out his dagger-like ocarina and looked up to the sky. Playing a few notes loud and clear made clouds gather around them. The clouds darkened until the rain poured down over the entire area. The water quickly covered every single spot, soaking with thick amounts.

Blood Diamond frowned at the mud gathering around his boots. His eyes glowed and a crystal rose up from the ground and lifted him above the mud and water and it drained passed him. "More." He gave one word and the music played louder. The water followed suit pouring down harder over the land.

He looked up to the towers and smiled at the color slowly returning. However, something was missing. He raised up his hand and Cold Blue stopped playing. The rain quickly stopped, but the clouds stayed in place.

Blood Diamond brought his hand into the sleeve of his other arm. Pulling back fast dark blue liquid poured forth into the air from each direction he swung to. The liquid flowed through the air yet never touched the ground. "Crystal Spell Number Nine, Crystal Waves." He swung his arms about faster as his horn glowed brightly.

Shredding sounds followed...

The sounds echoed loud over the land in all directions. Many wondered what it meant, while some others didn't seem to care. One, in particular, was watching the source very closely.

Upon a balcony far from the ground stood a mare that had eyes on the towers ever since she saw the orb flying through the sky toward the long-abandoned place. She could only frown at the sounds and the sight of that place. "So, it begins."

"Indeed," A shadowy figure appeared from seemingly nowhere. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, I am. The deal will be upheld."


	13. S2 Chapter 11: Royal Meetings

The morning sun's light traced over the honeydews that soaked every blade of grass that laid thick over the near flat plains around the capital of the Unicorn Providence. The city itself made this so more noticeable as it quickly reflected the light back with a much greater force than a drop of clarity around. The city shined with so many mirrors that covered nearly all the walls and even some roads. It was truly a sign of incredible beauty.

Twilight noted while looking out the window of the titan airship that this place would have been adored by her friends like Rarity and Fluttershy. To her, the place seemed a bit too bright, but they would have loved it.

The Titan airship landed softly on the outskirts of the city.

"Take some notes Starlight," She quickly commented hoping her student was looking as well. "Starlight... " She, however, frowned at no answer and deadpanned upon turning around noticing Starlight had already left to the front. "Huh, I guess a closer experience would be better than anything, but I still expect some notes." She walked to the exit as well.

As she passed Twilight noticed Adagio also getting ready to leave. "What? Do you sense one of your sisters out there?"

"Won't know until I get out there."

"Don't be concerning yourself," Lady Cat walked up. "She is going to be spending the day with Fredricson and me."

"Oh, that sounds like fun." Twilight smiled and got to the door.

"And where are you off to?"

"Where else? I'm from the future. I want to meet the legendary unicorn herself." Twilight laughed as she left.

"Huh, your hopes are too high."

* * *

Outside the airship, Silver Pear and Fredricson were hauling out some empty boxes, while Rex and Clover were looking over the city with some scopes. Starlight at the same time was rolling in the grass. Truthfully it had been so long since she saw and felt such fresh green.

"STARLIGHT!" Twilight's annoyance snapped the unicorn free from her happiness.

"Oh joy. Calm down. Teacher, I'm just enjoying something I haven't felt for two years."

"There was grass just outside the previous town we lived in."

"Yes, but that was always so rough, barely ever without snow covering and rarely if ever kept clean."

"Just get up. We have notes to take." Twilight poofed a notepad on Starlight's face.

"Really?!" Starlight huffed as she pulled the notepad off. "I rather do anything else."

"But, the research!"

"That of which have nothing to do with Friendship as far as I can see." Starlight jumped up and poofed the notepad away.

"Fine, that how about you help Silver Pear with shopping." Fredricson popped the idea forth while placing the final box down. "I would do it, but Lady has me taking the little one out for some childhood fun."

"Wait, me and Silver Pear." Starlight's eyes went wide.

"Yeah, won't it be fun, Lovely-" Silver Pear's hand was crushed in magic before it got within range of Starlight's rear.

"Uhh..." Starlight's eyes wandered back and forth between Twilight and serious unneeded notes and Silver Pear's slowly growing purple hand. "Fine, shopping would certainly be useful." She dropped her magic grip and walked over to Fredricson. "What do we need?"

"Everything is here on this list." Fredriscon handed her a blue paper with writing.

"Okay, doesn't seem like much." Starlight quickly scanned over the blue paper before putting it in her pocket and turning away.

"Wait, take this with you." Fredricson handed her a package. "Don't open this at all under any circumstances until the right time."

"Okay?" Starlight raised an eyebrow to his words but took the bag just the same.

Fredricson gripped her hand tightly, and spoke with great tone, "I mean it, no opening it at all until the right time!" It was loud, but it was certainly discerning for the unicorn as she walked off.

"I... I guess I'm on my own." Twilight turned away. She wanted to have some fun with notes but she often had to remember that plans can change extremely quickly. She herself was a prime example of that since if everything had gone to plan long ago for her she wouldn't be trapped in this distant past in the first place.

However, things looked up as she saw Rex and Clover walked down to what seemed to be the central road of the city. "That's it!" She smiled into a poof.

Appearing right in front of them she quickly made her claim known. "Can I join you two? That is if you two are going deep into the city and not somewhere..." Her words drifted as a random thought was quickly smashed in her mind for more important thoughts.

"Actually we are going to see Princess Platinum herself."

"Really!" Twilight jumped with joy. "What an incredible coincidence? I was just planning that very idea. I could go with you."

"No," Rex coldly walked off.

"Not a chance," Clover quickly followed behind Rex.

"What?" Twilight's mane went as flat as her joy. For a moment she was tapping into her inner Pinkmania Diane Pie and it certainly wasn't a nice sight. However just as quickly as everything went flat she jumped back to life and followed after them anyway. "Okay, but's I'm going to see the princess either way and since I've never been to this city before now I'll just have to follow you anyway."

"Great..." Rex deadpanned.

His reaction only brought greater joy from Twilight as she whispered under her breath, "We even deadpan to the same thing."

"What going on back there?" Clover popped some words out that quickly caught Twilight's attention.

"Nothing... It just I was getting hungry and wondering if we could stop for breakfast on the way." Twilight got to moving as fast as she could to catch up with them. "As a friend of mine always said a good breakfast means a good day."

"And where did this friend get that phrase from?"

"She stated the letters T and V, but I never understood what she meant by that."

* * *

Deep underground another hunger echoed forth from the stomach of a crystal pony and he pulled his face further and further away from the meat in front of him. Star Stone's willful determination was strong, but his own stomach was beginning to lose the fight. He was pushing back now with so much force that the back of the chair was starting to dig into his flesh.

"Just do it already!" The griffin roared beside him.

"You gave up first, you don't have the right to lecture me?" Star Stone spat back.

"It's so simple and actually quite tasty once you finally do it." The changeling beside him swooned with delight.

"Never, never!" Star Stone shook harder in his chair.

Despite his words and rage, nothing would get through at all to what remained of his former allies. They had long finished their plates and had been fed three other meals afterword. They had long shown their weakness. The only thing that brought hope to Star Stone now was why Indigo Frost had still not arrived yet to make his demands as his allies had promised.

Star Stone was waiting for that icy beast to walked through the door and shout never right to his face, in the end, his will would have to settle for the ones around him even if most of their minds were long gone. The possible future satisfaction of giving his answer to Indigo Frost himself was the only thing keeping him going now.

Yet, deep inside his stomach was something starting to match the roars. This feared him greatly, but he couldn't give up... could he? Would Indigo Frost ever walked through that door?

Every day he stared at that door and all he would get was the occasional voice from one of Indigo Frost's allies, but not from him. The legendary him, a being that at the time Star Stone doubted even existed. But today, he knew this would be different? He had this feeling deep within him that the door would open today. He didn't know when, but he knew that it would happen today.

Much to his luck, unbeknownst to him, there was someone on the other side of the door. This, someone, was hesitant to step in yes, but he wasn't Indigo Frost. Instead, He was someone else entirely and he watched the door just as closely, almost perfectly mirroring the watch of the crystal pony on the other side.

In the end, the only thing stopping this war of wills was each other. Only time would tell which one would win.

* * *

Back in the city Twilight quickly satiated her hunger with a salted biscuit, Rex was munching on some hay fries and Clover was sipping on some coffee. The three walked through the central road which gave a perfect view of most sights.

The buildings were a shine of light blues and reds while the roads were a bold contrast of black and grays. Fine eateries could be seen far and wide interchanged with even finer clothing shops. From the outside, each building seemed to be made of almost pure mirrors, perfectly reflecting all the faces that walked by them and other buildings that stood still across from them.

"Oh, the great center of unicorn life, Geländehorn is far more beautiful than the history book could ever describe." Twilight gave one her best starstruck faces.

"Hmm, I never considered it that beautiful..." Clover mused. "When I lived here I mean."

"Wait, were you born here?" Twilight practically jumped closer to hear more.

"No, this use to be the final stop on trades," Rex quickly interrupted, however, the answer made things even more confusing for Twilight.

Twilight tried asking for more as to the reason to Rex's words, but she quickly felt a coldness from Clover that was much stronger than before so she backtracked. "Nevermind that. Clover... Clover the Clever right?"

"Yeah, that is my nickname." Clover let down her guard only a little.

"I've read so much about you. From your spells to your knowledge, but one thing especially now has been bugging me. And how do I put this lightly?" Twilight reached into her pocket.

"Put what lightly-" Clover's words were stopped as Twilight floated a picture in front of her.

"This... it describes you as a... stallion..."

"Wait, what? A STALLION?!" Clover nearly crushed her drink. "Wait... why?"

"Hmm," Rex finally stepped closer. "It looks like because they were mistaking you for your brother."

"Brother?" Twilight pulled the picture back in confusion. "No, but you're wearing the same type of clothing in this picture. Plus the history books never mention a brother."

"Clovis the Coward," Clover quickly answered in annoyance. She poofed the drink to the nearest trash can and crossed her arms over. "He is under the ownership of Lord Red."

"Ownership? Lord Red?" Twilight felt as if the name sounded familiar to her, but she couldn't place where she had heard it before.

"An ancient unicorn nearly as old as Starswirl and under the same freedom as Starswirl. Those two stand above the rest when it comes to the unicorns and alicorns. Starswirl and Lord Red are often treated as if alicorns themselves."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense. I knew Starswirl was famous with the alicorns I just didn't know if there were others of such rank and prestige."

"There used to be six others in the same rank, but they are either long dead or..." Rex's eyes drifted over to the shadows for a moment before looking back forward. "To put it simply, Lord Red is the writer of most history books nowadays. It's no surprise Clovis would be placed in later books instead of you."

"I guess, you're right. However, that is going to change." Clover hovered a quill out of her pocket, "Lord Red will be hearing from me, or so help me..."

"Enough you two. Twilight if you wish to follow us, then keep the questions on the matter at hand. We need to get to Princess Platinum's castle."

"To stop the war, right?"

Rex sighed at her words as his only answer. At first, when this alicorn almost demanded to join them he seemed annoyed at the idea, but then his mind wondered back to Starswirl's reasoning for bringing her onto the ship. Yes, she had very powerful dark magic, but he seemed more curious about her face. Rex had considered a few possibilities, but each one was quickly stomped until now. Her curiosity, her reasoning, and even her face all seem so familiar and truthfully talking to her had actually brought forth a smile, that of which very few beings could ever do to him.

Rex was curious now curious to find out more about this Twilight Sparkle. However, he did notice Clover's uneasiness around her and wish not to push for anything that might set her off. Rex pushed his thoughts away and to the mission at hand.

* * *

On the other side of the city, Starlight tried to keep herself calm among the unicorns as she slowly walked out to the road. The two had been walking around for two hours.

"Kind of strange, isn't it, Lovely?" Silver Pear spoke up beside her.

Starlight jumped slightly at his words, "Yeah, it certainly is..."

"This city always seemed so perfect when I and mother use to come here. Cripse clean streets and quiet conformed citizens. It's not that Princess Platinum is a dictator, more that she can't stand chaos in any form in her sight."

Instantly Starlight's eyes fell, "Great? How are we going to get these supplies?"

"Well, what's on the list?"

She reached into her pocket and grabbed out the blue paper and opened it up. "Hmm, get some books, eggs, bread, grain, hay."

"Sounds easy."

"Yeah, that part is, the other side of the paper isn't." Starlight flipped the paper over.

"Okay, let me hear it."

"Black sand, red starch, and blue grain. All of which is extremely illegal. Not to mention this..." She brought the paper closer to her eyes to get a better look. "El Llama from a place called Diamondback Gust." She scratched her head in confusion. "What is an El Llama? I mean he can't expect us to go find a llama or something like that."

"Whatever it is, most of that stuff can be found in the Gross."

"Wait, what now?"

"The black market here."

"What?!" Starlight jumped slightly. "I thought the princess didn't like crime."

"No," Silver Pear waved his hand. "She just doesn't like the sight of it."

"What? Then where do I find it?" Starlight lowered her eyebrows in confusion.

"Just follow me, the Gross is this way, m'lady." Silver Pear bowed to her and pointed his arms to his left and turned toward a nearby stairway that led underground.

After crossing a few floors underground they came upon a far more different variant of the city above. This place was dirtier, covered in grease and stank very bad.

"So, this is the Gross. I can see where it gets its name."

The two walked through the underground market taking in the sights and grabbing what they needed. There were many different creatures hidden under this city. From batponies to griffins to even hippogriffs and jackalopes. Many of them were on the move while others were just simply sightseeing. Starlight raised her eyebrow as she walked.

"What's wrong?" Silver questioned. "First time in a black market?"

"No, not really. When I was younger I would sneak into these places all the time to get ingredients for dangerous spells and such.".

"Oh, my Lovely was once a criminal." Silver's arm raised up and padded her back.

Her head fell slightly, "Well, I wasn't always under the teaching of the Princess of Friendship."

Suddenly Starlight's head shot right up as she felt the hand slowly lowering. She looked to Silver Pear with a glare, knowing all too well what he was up to. "Don't worry, Lovely. Mom had me memorize every part of the Unicorn's black market encase she needed to get some not exactly legal foods."

"Oh really?" Starlight let a clever smile slip out as her horn glowed. Silver Pear's hand became enveloped in her magic. His eyes widened as he felt a hand now rubbing his ass. He smiled and turned to grab the hand. Thinking it was Starlight's hand, he kissed it lightly. Instantly he pulled back upon realizing that it was his own hand. He turned away from anypony and spat out as he waved his hand back and forth.

He slowly stopped as he heard Starlight's giggle. He spun around and found her standing by a shelf of books, acting as if she didn't see a thing. He quietly walked over as his eyebrows fell and he smiled.

"Are you two done yet?" Starlight chimed as she heard his footsteps stop behind her.

"Ha, ha, ha. Very funny, Lovely."

"What?" Starlight giggled again. "I thought you and your hand would make a cute couple. After all, you two share similar taste." She reached out and pulled out a book. She looked at its title and her eyes widened. "Really again?"

"What?" Silver walked to her side to see what she was looking at.

"Another new spell book published by this H. P. Bloodcraft."

"Well, yeah he has written most of the spell books in the world."

"Most spell books of my days were written by many different writers."

"Well, that is five thousand years from now. There are not as many creatures trying to learn magic in this time." Silver grabbed the book out of her hand.

"Coming from the earth pony." Starlight's eyebrows went flat and her arms crossed over.

"Hey, don't be racist. We earth ponies have a form of magic as well." Silver Pear place the book back up.

"Really?" Starlight turned and leaned onto the bookshelf. "Like what?"

"Well aside from our incredible ever expanding strength," Silver Pear flexed the stuff in his hands.

"Right, right?" She turned away.

"Well, what's wrong with his writing anyway?"

"My father always told me never to read from just a single source. But this timeline only seems to have one source of magic to gather from."

"Hmm, this is the first time you mention your father." Silver Pear smiled.

"Yeah, well truth be told Firelight was my foster father. I never knew my true father." Starlight pulled out another book. This time it was a history book. "Firelight loved history. He used to write essays on it all the time. And he always found it best to find out what really happened while to look at every angle."

"Every angle, huh." Silver Pear's eyes wandered down to a certain angle he would rather look than any book.

"I mean it, Silver." Starlight's horn glowed and pulled the earth pony's eyes away from the sight of her rear. "This is what actually has me so confused about Indigo Frost."

"What do you mean?"

"All the angles, he killed Crimson, kidnapped your mother, has been gathering the alathar, wants revenge on Twilight. Some of these may be connected, but the ones that aren't are so vastly apart." Starlight flipped through the book so fast but quickly came to a stop. She held her finger on a certain page before pushing into Silver Pear's sight. "And then there is this?"

"What?" Silver Pear looked over. It was a page on the alicorn families. "What about them? The alicorns have been around for a long time."

"That just it though. Ever since I got here it's been bugging why none of Firelight's books even his oldest never mention more than just two. Celestia and Luna are the only alicorns as of note in his old books, yet in this time they are everywhere."

"Huh," Silver Pear took the book from her and looked closer and scratched his head in more confusion. "That is rather strange."

"For the longest time when I and my teacher first got here, I would try and get her to notice, but she doesn't." Starlight walked over to a counter and placed down some money. "Instead, she hides in her own notes and the training she gives me."

"You never told me any of this before. Why now?"

"Well, well, Crimson's death..."

"What about it?"

"Ten days have passed and she hasn't shed a single tear. Not once..." Starlight took the stuff once it arrived and walked over to another counter. "Ten days and all she does is bug me on training, take more notes and now even kept a close eye on Rex. It is as if Crimson never meant a thing to her."

"Crimson meant a lot to her. He meant plenty to me and you too."

"Yes, but, but, but..." Starlight's magic flickered and she dropped the stuff. Silver Pear moved quickly to catch it all, but not quick enough to stop small tears from hitting the ground.

He placed down the stuff and quickly moved his finger over to stop more tears from falling from Starlight's eyes. "Why is she so cold? Is that what you are wondering?"

"She's not cold." Starlight pushed his hand away. "More like... she doesn't want to look..."

"She doesn't want to look back..." A new voice spoke forth.

Silver Pear and Starlight's eyes raced over to their right and they saw Starswirl standing by, drinking some chocolate milk.

"What are you doing here?" Starlight slowly stood up.

"I was right, wasn't I? Twilight acts a lot like him."

"Who?" Silver Pear questioned.

"Her f-"

"No," her words stopped him.

"I see."

"I mean, not quite, things are a bit more complicated than that. Twilight is not Rex's daughter. She is his des-" Starlight was stopped by a finger over her mouth.

"Don't, I love a good mystery. What you have given me is plenty of clues." Starswirl turned away. "As I don't want spoilers, make sure you don't give any to Rex... or Clover either."

"Okay..."Starlight tried to smile.

Starswirl noticed her concern out of the corner of his eye. He snapped his finger and cotton candy on a stick appeared in both of the ponies hands. "Eat up, have fun. The past is the past and the future is the future. Both of which are always out of reach. Even for a time traveler. Look only to the present."

"Alright," Starlight finally let go of her fear and smiled properly.

"Good. Speaking of the present. Why are you down here?" Starswirl turned back around with more curiosity. "No mystery this time, just curious."

"Fredricson sent us down here to get supplies. Most are illegal so there was little where else to check." Starlight held out the blue paper.

"Really," Starswirl's face lit up with a crooked smile that was completely unfamiliar to Starlight. "He gave you the blue paper... I'm assuming it came with a bag right."

"Yeah." Starlight pulled it away from the latch on her side.

"Oh, good. You haven't opened it yet." Starswirl stepped closer and tapped on the bag lightly. "Good, good, make sure you only open it at the absolute right time. No sooner or later. And make sure the item from Diamondback Gust is the very last item you get."

"Okay..." She pulled away slowly and even more confused than ever.

"I must be going. I have plenty of work to do." Starswirl poofed from sight rather quickly.

* * *

Noon arrived with quick succession. Rex, Clover, and Twilight finally arrived a the chinese style castle that stood at the very center of the city. It was a rather unusual contrast with the rest of the building as it was the first one they found that was totally made of stone and completely devoid of any mirror or any reflective objects of any kind for that matter. The stones were of a fine grade certainly but seemed to be caked in dust, outside a few small clean spots around the massive doors and windows.

Twilight knocked on the door with confusion yet still cheer. After a moment passed with no answer more confused filled her mind. She knocked again, assuming that they simply didn't hear her the first time... Only for no answer at all.

"Hmm, are we sure anypony is even home?" Clover walked over and jabbed her bow staff into the door with enough force to tear the wood and yet no reaction.

Twilight was caught completely off guard by Clover's action. "Watch it-"

"Hold on," Rex held his hand out to both of them. Clover backed off, followed slowly by Twilight. Once they were clear he held his hands together into a triangle shape. "Shadow Spell One, Tracer." On that, a single tail of shadow shot out of his own shadow and raced to the door. "Trace on." Rex's left eye went completely black. "Okay, I'm in."

"Oh, incredible!" Twilight quickly poofed a notepad into her hand and quill into the other. "An extra line of sight." She quickly took down all the details she could observe.

"What do you see?" Clover questioned.

"Hmm, three guards, possibly two more that might have just left. Their footprints pepper the floor."

"Oh, it's that accurat-"

"Shush," Rex silence Twilight. "The first three guards are clearly close enough to hear the knocks but not close enough to hear everything going on the other side.

"They are ignoring me huh," Twilight smiled and she turned right back to the door. Her horn quickly lite with magic. Before Rex could even react she placed her hand onto the door and spoke, "Darkest Laughter!"

Without warning the door vanished from sight.

"Well, there goes our simple way to enter," Rex deadpanned as his eye reappeared.

Twilight's face went instantly sheepish especially when the door crashed down behind them. "Okay... May have been wiser to channel Fluttershy then Pinkie Pie."

"Was that a dark magic spell based on one of the Elements of Harmony?" Clover questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"...Yes..."

"Next time use a small variant of that spell." Rex huffed as he passed by.

"... Right, I'll remember that." Twilight knew her moved completely backfired. She wanted to impress Rex with her use of dark magic, but this only showed lousy control.

The guards quickly closed in with spears ready. Rex quickly noted that despite their movement being quick their stances were absolutely terrible. Something was certainly off, he could tell purely from these actions alone.

"Look, we simply wish to talk to Princess Platinum," Rex raised his hands up in surrender, bringing much shock to both Clover and Twilight. "We wish no harm. We are only here to ask for her help."

"..." The guards gritted their teeth before slowly dropping their weapons. "She is in the garden." One of the guards walked forward, "I will lead you."

"... Good," Rex raised an eyebrow but followed the guard anyway.

"Cool," Clover followed.

"Okay, I guess things worked out after all." Twilight could only rub the back of her head in confusion. "I hope Starlight and Silver Pear have fewer problems then we are clearly going to have."

* * *

On the other side of the city, deep within Gross, the two reached their final stop. Starlight held up the blue paper once more to make sure and gave it another read.

"Diamondback Gust..."

"That's what the sign said," Silver Pear pointed out.

"Yeah... but there's nothing here." She threw her hands out to emphasize this. Indeed, there was nothing laid out, no one creature of any kind standing at the counter. In fact, the only thing in sight outside of the dust that caked everything was a bell.

"Could that be the El Llama?" Silver Pear pointed to the bell. It was rather strange, the bell looked to be almost brand new. A distinct cleanness was a very stark contrast with the rest of the stands broken down look.

"Doubt it..." Starlight deadpanned.

"We should at least ring it. It would be rude to simply just stand here."

"I guess that's true-" Starlight rang the bell and exhale. "I hope this isn't anything stupid, I mean Fredricson does work for the future Dis-"

Without warning the two fell through a trap door.

Moments later they found their rears in a lot of pain as they attempted to get up. Starlight dusted herself off. "Ouch, that hurt a lot."

Silver Pear meanwhile stood absolutely frozen, staring out to something in the darkness.

Starlight was very confused by his silence and turned around only to find that he still didn't move. She tapped his shoulder and instead of an answer he backed away very slowly.

Her eyebrow raised even higher and she finally asked, "What is wrong with you, you damn perv?"

"Naga..." He softly whispered.

"Naga, what is that some sort of sex joke?" Starlight gripped at his shoulders and pushed at him.

"Giant snake..."

"Okay, now I know you are making a dick joke?" Starlight closed her eyes and huffed before finally turning around.

Suddenly her ear flicked at the sounds of hissing. Convinced that Silver Pear was now in front of her making noise she opened her eyes and yell, "Okay, I get it, the mares are always talking about your size. Well, frankly I... don't... give... a... shit..." She slowly stopped at the sight of a massive head of a snake at least three times her size staring back at her.

"Curse you, Dis-"

Before Starlight could finish Silver Pear pulled her away yelling even louder. "NAGA!"

* * *

Deep underground the hunger grew louder within Star Stone's stomach. The urges pulsed through his body and yet he tried his hardest to fight it. Despite his headache begging him, his dry throat demanding him, and his eyes blurring everything, he refused each call by pushing himself further and further away from the plate. The chair was now tearing deep into his back.

He looked to his left and right. Sorrow filled his face at the sight of his former allies now leaning over, attempting to lick at the blood pouring from his back. He turned his head away from them and gritted his teeth.

"Please... " He begged. "Make this end." He lifted his head to the door. "I refuse to give in to your ways... You, damn Wendigo!"

There was no answer...

"Face me! Look at me before I die!" Star Stone poured forth his final struggles.

Again, no answer...

"DAMN IT!" Star Stone shredded his throat with one final roar before finally dropping his head.

A moment passed and the door finally opened. Someone walked in and Star Stone could only smile. He thought in this one moment he had won. However, all that changed when he lifted his head up to see who actually walked in.

"Sage... Brimstone..." Star Stone looked in shock to the ifrit as it stood in front of him.

"Lord Frost is not here at all. He never was."

"Lord... Frost..." Slowly the connections moved in Star Stone's head. The mere fact that Sage would refer to this Indigo Frost as Lord only brought forth rage in his mind. But what brought out more than anything was the fact that Indigo Frost was never there at all. All this time he had only been sensing Sage and nothing else. This final realization made everything snap.

The confusion was completely gone...

The rage was completely gone...

The hope was completely gone...

Star Stone's eyes went completely blank. All the work he had done until now was for not, the beast was never there. Every ounce of everything that had kept him going was now gone and something finally climbed out...

...Hunger...

Without warning, Star Stone's body jolted erratically. Despite his mouth being once dry it was now filled with foam and he roared outward with a voice that sent chills over everyone in the room. The others near him hissed at first before almost kneeling away from him screeching in total fear.

It was like they were dogs bowing down to an alpha.

The alpha pushed forward ripping his arms at his binding with so much force that his bones cracked aloud. Finally, the binding tore and the alpha jumped forward. His legs weren't free but that didn't matter as the tendons in his feet quickly split open.

Free, the alpha rushed forward and gripped Sage by the throat and punched him hard into the ground. Sage struggled at the chips of bone sticking out of the hand that was now choking the life out of him. The alpha smiled at this and leaned down to Sage's face and growled before slowly opening his mouth...

"So... this is it?" Sage glared at the teeth, the breath, the blank eyes that only had his own face, no, his flesh as the only thing within the mind of the monster hanging over him.

As the teeth closed in one final thing flew through Sage's mind that made everything completely clear. The final words his new lord told him before he left this day.

"Privilege, rights, name, friends and even family, it means nothing. When all things fall, that is what I plan to push this world to accept. In the end, nothing matters more compared to the urge to survive. Some ponies do it because it's right, others do it because they have to."

Sage's fears faded and he smiled, speaking aloud the final words that were given, "But mostly they do it because deep down they are... all monsters."

* * *

Author Note's

Well, the newest chapter is out and a few things were revealed. For one thing, I quickly confront the conflict with the actual show's canon that Clover is a stallion. Truthfully I didn't know this at all until days before the posting of the prologue of this story so by then I was in too deep to change anything. That is until an idea popped in my head, a brother, this idea came forth while I was planning chapter nine so I slipped him in for a cameo there and answered the question completely here. Clover for my canon is a mare, plain, and simple.

Now onto the other questioning involving past characters, you might have noticed a line about another six being honored in the same ranking as Lord Red and Starswirl that are now gone. This is me stating that the Historical Six like Flash Magnus, Meadowbrook, and Rockhoof do exist in this universe, but won't be playing a role in this story unfortunately due to two reasons.

One, this story's baselines were setup long before Season 7 was ever a thing so that makes introducing such characters far more drastic.

Two, because Starswirl's own origins and future fate were decided in my universe as far back as during season five's finale. It was even outright stated in Endless Time or Forever End what happened to him and even heavily hinted in this very story with Twilight's first lines to him in Episode 9: Bloody Cold.

These facts, make it very clear that these characters just wouldn't work in my universe. But I at least hinted to their existence, even Stygian with Rex observing a shadow in remembrance of him, showing an almost kinship with him. And whose know I might find a place for some of them in the future.

Now as for the readers who think that Rex is a Stygian clone. No he is not, first off as stated before this story's baseline was design before season seven even happen and in fact, the first mention of Rex in my universe currently readable is in Past, Present or Damnation which was fully posted nearly a full month before the finale aired and we knew of Stygian's powers. Truthfully Rex is far older then Stygian since my oldest readers know of the original version of Rex from my first ever story that I posted within days of joining this site and if unfortunately no longer up due to massive conflictions with current stuff. Rex might have changed quite a bit since that first story, but one thing that has not changed and that was his powers, that is one thing I kept for so long.

Anyway, sorry for the long post in the author's notes. I just wanted to make things more clear for readers on this chapter. This chapter could really be renamed as the fixing questions chapter because that's really a lot of things I covered here were questions that I couldn't really fix outright without a massive overhaul and really since this story actually came out a year later than planned I think I waited long enough.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I did toss in some jokes. I do see myself as a better comedian then anything really action and heck if I could create my universe with a more fun vibe I would, but then a lot of my stuff would be lost in context.

As always, don't forget to comment, like or favorite. Whichever you think is best. Want to keep with updates, follow me here or on my Twitter. /Gryphonstar5678


	14. S2 Chapter 12: Getting Ahead

The Afternoon's light laid outside the city was soon cut up with cold winds and snowy clouds that gathered above. Yet no matter the size, not a single one got past the city's borders. Geländehorn was completely untouched by the weather as it always was.

Yet far from here, across the plains and back into Gelum Voce Pia things were much different. The snow fell here without any fear and quickly covered up the scars on the land and buildings that even after ten days had still yet to heal properly.

The snow traced over everything until finally, it came upon a massive crystal claw standing out from a shattered altar. However, just before it could touch it the snow instantly hit the ground. The winds carrying it hit the dirt as well. In fact, nothing was able to get within a full five meters of it as shown by the fact there was no snow, no grass, no forms of life around it or on it.

"It's bending gravity." A lone hooded figure walked to it with joy in her voice. She slowly lowered her hood to get a better look. It was none of than Celestia herself.

She got as close as she could before being stopped. She waved her hand over over the border. "No, I was wrong, it not bending, it's simply distorting space." She poked and the border and the entirety bounced like a stone on water. "Incredible. Now, this is a much better find then some light magic source."

Celestia backed away as a frown crossed over her mouth. "But... Oh, I'm no good at dark magic studies. If only Luna was here too. She used to date a dark magic user." Soon enough her frown flipped over, "I guess I could gather what data I can now and take it to Luna later for extra details. Any reason to keep me away from searching for that damn light magic source."

Without warning or any regard to anything around her, her horn glowed and poofed a massive tent around the border. Inside the tent was several tables covered in all matter of test tubes, glass bowls and other forms of science. "Like Starswirl always said, 'Study Everything'." She pulled out a tool and walked back to the wall.

Soon lights flickered from the tent followed by sounds of joy and annoyance. From a distance though she never realized she was being watched. A lone pegasus sipped his cider before turning away.

* * *

Meanwhile just outside of Geländehorn in a park with trees and plenty of grass Adagio ran around and jumped, tossed and fell onto the soft blades of grass. Her face had never been so happy. It was such a good sight to see for Fredricson. The little one had been so moppy before. She needed some rest and fun.

He leaned back in his chair and put a pipe in his mouth. "This be the life, aye Lady Cat."

"See, I told you this could be fun." She walked over and handed him a drink. Once he took the drink she moved her hands to his shoulders and rubbed them.

"Oh, yes. Whatever it be, it is perfect as long as ye be right here with me." He pulled the pipe out and lifted his drink upward. He reached up and pulled her face down in a quick kiss.

"Oh, just me." Lady Cat purred back. "That might be the best insult to my sister yet."

"Yeah, me be glad to not have any work to do?"

"Speaking of work. What did you send Starlight and Silver Pear to do in the first place?"

"Aye gave them the blue list-" He stopped as she jumped away from him.

"You did what?!"

"Calm down. It be Starswirl's orders anyway."

"What are you talking about?" Lady Cat raced back over and pulled him out of the chair. "You and him both know how dangerous Diamondback Gust is!"

"And as aye said. It be Starswirl you need to blame. He planned to test them since he barely had any data on them. He even told me that he would follow them the entire time and even lie if they ever spot him."

"WHAT?!" Lady Cat's loud shriek was so unexpected that it even caught Adagio off guard. "Damn it, I hate that unicorn some times." She finally let go of Fredricson.

"Don't worry, they have the bag, therefore they will be fine." Fredricson placed the pipe back in his mouth but quickly became annoyed when he realized he never lite it. Pulling out a match he swiped it across Lady Cat's leathery corset then brought the flame over to his pipe and puffed a few times to get it working.

"Fine..." Lady Cat lowered her head and walked back to her chair.

"They'll be fine... Unless they opened the bag early..."

* * *

Deep underground Starswirl sneezed aloud, stuttering his laughter for a moment, "Oh, wow, I'm sneezing a lot today." he posed as he wiped his nose. "Somepony must be talking about me." He reached over to some popcorn floating around him and laughed again before throwing some in his mouth.

His eyes moved around at incredible speed keeping up with what he was watching extremely well. He was filled with joy but also scanning every detail. He didn't want to miss anything. This plan was crazy, but it wasn't the first time he thought of something like this.

Down on the ground, Starlight and Silver Pear ran through several pillars as fast as they could. Behind them the giant serpent quickly followed, twisting across the ground and through the pillars with ease despite being easily more than thirty times bigger than each of them.

The serpent was so big and so long that no matter how far they ran from the place where they dropped it didn't feel as if they were getting any further from his jaws.

"What are we going to do?!" Silver Pear screamed.

"Why are you asking me? You know more about these things than me?"

"I've only seen them in my mom's old hunting books!"

"You at least know their name! That's more than I know." Starlight barked back. She reached her hand out and channeled her magic. "We can't just keep running forever." In a poof, her gentlemare sword appeared in her hand.

"Fine!" Silver Pear thought back to the book, but the longer he thought the more nothing came to mind. "I'm sorry. I guess will have to improvise."

"I was worried you were going to say that." Starlight closed her eyes and concentrated magic into her feet. With a good kick, she launched herself into the air and toward the naga.

The naga opened it's jaws wide at this and smiled. At the same time, Silver Pear jumped around and pulled out his claymore. Starlight leaned back as she fell closer to the teeth, but before the naga could get a chance, Silver Pear punched his hilt into its jaws, slamming them shut. Hearing the loud slam Starlight's eyes shot open and she finished her flip by landing feet first, perfectly on the forehead of the naga. She pulled her gentlemare sword back and pointed downward.

"Now this stops."

She dropped the tip down. However just before it made an impact a snapping sound filled the air as if somepony had snapped their fingers. The tip hit and much to Starlight's shock bent like rubber.

"What?" She pulled back and stabbed again. Just like before the weapon bent like a rubber band. "No, no, no." She stabbed over and over and nothing.

"What's going on up there?" Silver Pear struggled as the chin of the naga pushed down on him.

"I don't know." Starlight turned her gentlemare sword upward and her eyes widened at the blade drooping in her hand. "What?!"

Before she could process anything the naga pushed upward sending her flying into a pillar. She coughed hard and fell onto the naga's body. The naga felt her and knocked its body up launching her in the air again. She was sent spinning through the air and toward the jaws once more.

"Silver Pear!" she shouted as the jaws snapped shut.

"Starlight!" Silver Pear shouted in rage. He charged forward and swung at the naga over and over. He was filled with such rage that he didn't even notice that his claymore was acting like rubber now as well.

"Give her back!" his voice was stopped halfway as a poofing sound filled his ears. He turned around to see smoke that looked a lot like cotton candy. Much to his shock Starlight fell out of it covered in slime. "Starlight!" He rushed over.

"Silver... Silver..." Her body twitched uncontrollably and her eyes glazed over.

"What is it, Lovely-" He was stopped in questioned as she slapped him.

"You asshole!" She pushed herself away and coughed a few times.

"What?! I didn't touch your ass once?" Silver Pear threw his arms around, knocking the slime off his hands.

"Not, you." Starlight wiped slime off her face and pointed upward. "HIM!"

Silver Pear looked to where she was pointed and jumped back at the sight of Starswirl floating above them all. "How long has he been there?" He questioned.

"The whole time I'm sure!"

Starswirl stopped spinning the popcorn and looked down at them upon her words. "So, what gave me away?"

"How about the fact you poofed me out of there," Starlight posed. She aimed her gentlemare sword and despite it still drooping she pulsed magic out of it and shot it at Starswirl. The old wizard waved his hand and the attack bounce to the wall.

"Attacking me won't make this end."

"Yes, it will. Now end this illusion!" She shot off another.

"I never said this was fake."

"What do you mean?" Starlight's eyes widened. "Of course it is. Why else would you tell Fredricson to give us that list?"

"While, yes I did plan all of this? This is very real!" Starswirl put on a serious face.

"You mean I just got eaten?"

"You mean, you are about to get eaten again?" Starswirl pointed over to the naga that was clearly still there.

Starlight's eyes widened, "Curse you, Dis-" She was stopped as her and Silver Pear were swallowed again.

"Hmm, Dis..." Starswirl stroked his beard. "Is that short for something?" He snapped his fingers and a dictionary appeared in the swarm of popcorn. He opened and moved over to the D's. "Let's see D I S, Dis, Disability, Disable, Disabled, Disablement, Disabler, maybe, Disablism, Disabuse, oh certainly not that one. Hmm, Disaccharidase, Disaccharide, Disaccord, Disaccredit, Disaccredition, Disaccustom, Disadvantage." He flicked his finger and the page turned.

* * *

On the other side of the capital Rex, Clover, and Twilight walked silently through the hallways of the castle. Indeed, just as Rex described much of it was covered in dust. There were certainly clean spots, but most of which were concentrated around important areas, like the dining room, stairs and quarters. And yet even those places had dust gathered around the edges of the walls and cracks.

"This place would give Rarity a heart attack," Twilight did her best not to sneer even as a crystal spider dropped from a string of web right in front of her.

Her eye narrowed on the creature and she held her hand out. The crystal spider landed and Twilight brought it up to her face. "Can you tell me why this place looks so destriot?"

"Are you talking to that thing." Clover raised an eyebrow in confusion to Twilight's actions.

The crystal spider crawled off of Twilight's hand, making her deadpan, "Damn it, Fluttershy always made this look so easy."

"Flutter-who?"

"Nevermind..." Twilight waved the web off of her hand and attempted to catch up with Rex. Clover seeing this quickly moved to be in front of Twilight... and closer to Rex.

"Quiet, you two!" Rex's strong voice caught their attention. "I'm listening..."

"To what-" Twilight looked to Rex's head. Even though they were covered by his turban she was surprised to see the bumps where his ears would be twitching as if listening.

"What do you hear Rex?"

"I'm not sure. Cast a hearing spell."

"Of course," Clover closed her eyes and her horn glowed. Inside her head, her eardrums widened. "There is... Nothing, absolutely nothing."

"Do you think it might be a magic dampener?" Twilight questioned. "I read they were first getting invented around this time."

"No," Clover quickly answered. "And what do you mean invented recently. Rex's amulet is over five thousand years old."

"Amulet?" Twilight was confused since out of the ten days she knew Rex and even when she read books about him she never knew he wielded an amulet. She jotted down a mental note on that question for later, right now a bigger question was this castle.

"Nevermind that!" Rex's annoyance was clear now. "...Twilight... Do you know any-"

"Sound amplifying spells! Sure I do." Twilight's horn glowed with magic and inside her ears did just the same as Clover's. "I learned this spell straight from Clover's private section of Canterlot's Library."

"Remind me to never tell my brother my sound spell..." Clover deadpanned.

"Shhh..." Rex held his hand up and all three of them stopped despite the guards leading them not giving any sign of a halt.

"I... I..." Twilight's eye went wide. "I can't hear anything."

"I knew it..." On that Rex's chains flew upward and wrapped around the throat of each guard.

"What are you doing?" Twilight rushed forward but Clover quickly stopped her.

"I want answers now!" Rex demanded. "We have been walking for hours and not got anywhere near this garden..."

The guards refused to answer. They kept still and strong despite the hold over their throats.

"Ha," Clover laughed at the guards and walked forward. "You don't know who this is?" She waved her hands around Rex as she walked. "This is Rex Moba, Warlock Knight of the Alicorns and master of shadowmancy. You know the rare power of shadow magic." She pulled out her bow staff and walked over, punching one of the guards in the gut, knocking his face forward. She quickly grabbed his mane and held his head down. Leaning by his ear she quickly yelled, "That means he can use any and all shadows within this entire city. He knew where the garden was the whole time and only has been following you out of a show of respect." She leaned in closer to his ear and blew some air into it, making the guard twitch in fear.

Twilight was in complete shock to all of these actions. And yet the only thing that kept her in her place was the smile on Rex's face. She knew Rex was strong, but could he be this strong? She almost felt doubt in all the words, but she couldn't place it where.

After a moment of no answers, Clover kicked the guard between the legs and knocked him to the ground before walking off. "Fine, we will be going the rest of the way on our own."

Clover walked past Twilight. She kept moving for about ten feet more back the way they came and hit the wall hard with her bow staff in specific spots that seemed almost at random. Without warning the wall opened, revealing a new pathway, dusty like the others yes, but very clearly a more traveled route.

"This way you two." On Clover's cue, Rex let lose a small laugh before bashing the guards into the wall and out cold.

"Wait, what? WHAT WAS THAT?!" Twilight's jaw dropped.

"That was a bluff." Rex walked past her.

Clover laughed harder as Rex entered the new hallway and walked back over to Twilight. She closed the alicorn's jaw and laid her elbow over her head. "Yeah, Rex's shadowmancy isn't anywhere near that strong. I just needed a way to get close enough to do a mind scan. Scarying them with such a simply lie made their most recent thoughts on the garden pop into their head. After which it was easy to find the garden."

"Wait, so Rex knew they were leading us in circles!" Twilight knocked the arm away.

"I doubt he did at first. If anything he was getting annoyed at how much time we were wasting." Clover laughed harder and ran to catch up with Rex.

"Wait..." Twilight ran over to the turn to the new hallway and asked, "Does that mean there were no magic dampen-"

"Actually looks like you were right... At least about one thing." Clover threw a large star-shaped crystal right at Twilight. Luckily the alicorn ducked in time to dodge. Seeing that she missed Clover huffed in annoyance and whispered under her breath, "For somepony with only one good eye she certainly has good depth perception."

* * *

Underground, deep inside the belly of the beastly serpent, Starlight and Silver Pear struggled. They didn't know what to think about all of this. The inside of the naga stank and was covered in slime. The colors were either dark or pink.

"What is this?" Starlight lit her horn with light. "Some sort of test? Or a twisted joke?"

"You tell me. You know more about this wizard than I do." Silver Pear posed.

"Not really. Before I met my teacher I only knew him as a great wizard. She was the one that was such a big fan of his work."

"She certainly didn't act like that on the airship. Since she was constantly watching Rex and Clover." Silver Pear pushed at his shoulder to stand up in the small moving walls.

"Oh, that more along the lines of preservation rather then idolization."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'll explain later. Speaking of preservation." Starlight's horn glowed brighter. She held her hand and Silver Pear moved out of the way. Magic from her horn flowed over her hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, Either we die or I test out a spell I'm been working on."

"Working on?"

"Not really working on? More like I've seen it in dreams ever since I saw some mass murderers use it."

"Mass Murderers?" Silver Pear raised an eyebrow to that.

"I'll explain later... I hope..." She held her hand out and open. The magic slowly condensed in her palm. "I really hope this doesn't backfire. Great Hand!" She shouted her spell but stopped half way was pain-filled her palm. "Damn it, Great Hand of-"

The magic stopped and a stick grew out of her palm. A paper was attached that said the word 'bang'.

"Is it suppose to do that?" Silver Pear questioned.

"What?" Starlight pulled back and removed the stick off and looked at the paper. "No, it was just supposed to be a giant 'fuck you' beam!" She looked the paper over before throwing it into the stomach acid below them.

Silver Pear picked it up and read the paper. "You... truly... are... hopeless."

"I am not!" Starlight shouted at him.

"No, the paper, its saying more." Silver Pear brought the paper over to her face. "Look."

"What?" Starlight stopped and grabbed the paper as the words from before slowly faded. Soon new words replaced them. She quickly read aloud. "I know you have only three hours left before the acid eats you alive, but taking a chance on a spell that could have vaporized your arm is not the best use of your time."

"Wait, we only have three hours left!"

Starlight waved the paperback and forth, "Huh, I've never seen message paper up close before. Always thought this kind of spell was a legend-" She stopped as the writing faded again and new writing took its place. "Hmm, If you want out of there I suggest you put your heads together and think. I wouldn't put anyone in danger unless they already had a way out."

"What does that mean?" Silver Pear questioned.

"Hold on, there is more..." Starlight waited as the new message came through. "Also does the word Disassociation sound at all familiar to you."

"Disassociation, what does that have to do with this?"

Starlight facepalmed, "He's just taking guesses on his name in the future."

"How do you know that?"

"Becuase this message paper was made from the paper of a dictionary." Starlight crumbled up the paper. "Teach always loves reading those before going to bed, so I know the paper pretty well."

"Huh, you know what Twilight sleeps with?" Silver Pear's eyebrows rolled around.

"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter and help me think." Starlight threw the paper at him and searched her pockets. "No, nothing here." She stared at Silver Pear annoyed.

"What? Oh, right?" Silver Pear checked his own pockets but again nothing.

"Well, he didn't sneak it on us." Starlight placed her hand on her chin and pondered aloud. "Maybe it was something we bought." She turned around and raced her hands over Silver Pear.

"Hey? Right HERE!" He by stopped by a punch to the gut.

"Do you ever get your mind out of the gutter?" She pulled back with the list in hand and looked everything over. "No, no, no, no." She went over every item on the list and either it wouldn't help or be way too small of an amount to be useful.

She waved the paper back and forth hoping for some invisible ink or another kind of hidden message to be revealed, but no. "Damn it!"

"Maybe one of the items we have can have some sort of an effect on this naga."

"What are you saying?" She questioned him, "You know more about these naga than I do."

"Well, mom use to hunt the smaller ones."

"Really, they come in smaller sizes?"

"Yeah, some as small as your hand. Their size is determined by their age and wisdom."

"Wisdom?! This thing ate us," Starlight attempted to throw her arms out to emphasize this but the wall was now leaning inward. "Plus, you were the first one to run from it."

"Yeah, I know, but that was because it showed anger to us."

"Anger, it roared at us only after you ran from it."

"You wouldn't understand, it's a hunter kind of sense that told me it was angry long before it roared."

"Hunter sense, well what does this hunter sense tell you now?"

Silver Pear stopped at her words and leaned against one side of the fleshy wall while Starlight pushed against the other. Thoughts swarmed his head.

"Shit," Starlight pushed harder. "I'm starting to think Starswirl meant three minutes."

"Wait, he said we already have what we need on us."

"Yes, and-"

Without warning, Silver Pear reached over to Starlight. "Don't you fucking dare?!" She screamed as his hands went over her sides. The walls pushed closer, knocking Starlight into Silver Pear's arms. "No, no, no!" She struggled, "I am not dying while you attempt to have sex with me!"

"I'm not," He placed his hand over her mouth. His other hand continued to move around her despite her fighting. The walls pushed forward even more, knocking their stomachs against each other and her chest into his face, making her squirm even more.

Finally he pulled out what he was searching for. The package that Fredricson gave them. Going on the pure gut feeling he tore open the bag only to find nothing in the bag at all.

"What?" Silver Pear pushed his face away from the chest and pulled his arms back in confusion before receiving a swift kick between the legs.

"Thank you for not taking my virginity!"

Silver Pear pulled back in pain, "I'm sorry, I thought-" His eyes blinked a few times before his thoughts changed gears. "Wait, you're a virgin-" Again he was stopped, but this time not by Starlight.

Out of nowhere liquid rushed over them and pushed them upward. Within seconds they were pucked up and out onto the floor.

* * *

Roaring echoed back and forth through the base of Indigo Frost. The teeth of the monster edged closer to Sage's throat, yet the blank stare in the beast's eyes was the only thing Sage could see. At first, he found exhilaration upon realizing the truth, then again if the beast killed him now it would matter not.

Luckily help arrived with a slam to the monster's head, knocking its jaws clear from 'Sage. Sage finally snapped out of his fear and exhilaration to see Vanity standing over him. She quickly helped him to his feet before turning her attention to the monster.

"Back, back, back," She swung flames around. The monster finally yielded... for the moment.

"Uh, thank you," Sage finally exhaled heavily.

Vanity smiled, but with her free hand punched him hard in the gut.

"Uhg, what was that for?"

"There is a reason why we watched them from a camera!" she screamed at him. "A reason why this room was locked behind a safe door!"

"I'm, I'm sorry." Sage stood up better and leaned toward the doorway's corner. "I just got curious..."

"Well, next time you get curious, bring some flames." She held up the flame to the other monsters and they pushed away from it in fear. "You see intense cold or heat is a good barrier."

Suddenly without warning the lead monster charged forward again, aiming straight toward the lowered guard of Vanity.

Vanity turned almost too slow to stop it. However, that mattered not as giant green tentacles flew into the room and grabbed the monster, throwing him across the walls before beating him against the table.

Upon seeing this Vanity quickly took a bow. Sage meanwhile turned toward the doorway and was completely puzzled by the sight of a swirling vortex floating in the air, of which the tentacles were flowing out of.

The tentacles beated the monster around several times. Each hit crushed several bones. But after a few moments the monster was pulled into the vortex. Screams and crunching sounds followed.

After a moment of silence, the monster walked back out, only now he looked and acted very different. His skin was now covered in wrinkles and he was so much calmer. Despite all of this, one thing was instantly more noticeable than any other.

"That smell," Sage pulled back at that all familiar pungent odor. "Thule?"

"I'm sorry we were unable to stop him, Thule."

The monster raised his hands to his face and stretched the skin back so drastically before finally talking... with Thule's voice. "Do not worry. I needed a new skin anyway. The other one was beginning to rot a bit too much for my liking." He removed his hands from his face and down to the neck, giving loud popping before finally stopping. "He could have served a better place, but this will do fine." Thule turned to Sage and gave a smile, at which point he noticed the teeth had fallen out of place, a swift punch to the jaw fixed that. Once everything seemed right, he spoke to the ifrit stallion. "I assume you know your place now."

"Yes, I know my place now…" Sage laughed aloud. "I know why he chose us all. All nine members. Because we are all alphas."

."Indeed, you finally see it. You are his proof. That even the highest of elites can become monsters."

"To pollute even the head of the world with the ideals of the monster that is our will." Vanity stood up finally and place her hand over her head in a salute.

Thule walked over to the other monsters and placed his hands over their heads. The monsters twisted and screamed before abruptly standing still. He released his hands and brought them down to the binds. Their binds were unhooked. Sage and Vanity jumped back as the monsters, walking on all fours slowly exited the room. "These two know their place now as well, so they are free... to follow our command."

"Of course," Vanity smiled. Even though she was loyal to the cause Sage could see a bit of faint fear in her eyes to the sight of each monster as they passed through the door.

"Yes, but what is their place... now?"

"Their job now will be to go to other elites and bring them here for more knowledge. To gather packs of their own and wait, being ready for the final phase of the plan."

"We're that close..."

"No, but Frost has been planning this for a long time. It's best to think ahead." Thule walked up to both of them. "Speaking of thinking ahead, he has a mission for you two."

"What is it?" Vanity questioned with a little bit a glee.

"You will know soon enough, but we need your brother's ashes first." Thule's final words brought a chill through Vanity's whole body.

* * *

A distinct chill covered Twilight's mind especially as the three walked through a graveyard to reach the garden. Rex and Clover were so eerily quiet about the whole thing. Clover keeping her attention to the front while Rex did everything he seemingly could to never look at the graves especially the names.

Each grave was of the exact same shape and stood in a range of heights from just barely up to the kneecaps to taller than an alicorn. They were kept incredibly clean, it was quite surprising since the rest of the castle was so empty and covered in dust. All of them were chilling to see, but the mere idea that they were what stood between the entrance and the garden really said a lot. And yet there was clearly so much more care for these then anything in the castle.

At the end of the graveyard was a tall statue of a unicorn in fancy royal armor. Rex stopped at the sight of it and slowly bowed. Clover was even slower to her actions but followed suit. Twilight gave no reaction at first and only stared in confusion before asking what they were doing.

"We are showing respect to the former ruler of the unicorns," Rex answered her with a slight harshness in her words.

Twilight's sight went wide and she quickly dropped down to one knee. "This is Sir Sereal Platinum? Sorry, the books only say so little about him. The biggest thing being his death."

"Well, the day of his death the alicorns lost a truly loyal soldier and the unicorns lost a great ruler." Rex stood up and walked away.

Clover gave no words to add and only frowned at the word 'great'. She stood up too but walked away much faster.

Twilight looked up to the statue and smile, grabbing out a notepad. "Note to self, get a picture to go later."

"Look," Clover speaking brought Twilight attention away from the statue to see the garden just a few meters away.

Twilight walked ahead only to stop in her tracks at the sight of what lay at the center of the garden. A large area for fighting, and a battle going on with rather a young female unicorn mare fighting with all her might.

The alicorn slowly approached the sight of it all.

The unicorn moved fast. Throwing the much heavier opponent to the ground. Taking his arm and swiftly breaking it. Quickly smashing the other hand with her foot until he dropped the weapon. Seeing the opponent down the unicorn mare reached into her back pocket and pulled out two knives swinging them right at the opponent's throat.

"Enough, Mira!" The attack stopped mere centimeters from the skin at those words. A strange lizard walked forward from the side of the arena and spoke with less anger, "I believe you have won."

"Have I Dim?" She turned the knives away. Smashing the opponent's face into the ground and out cold.

"Incredible-" Twilight's words were stopped instantly as without warning the unicorn mare threw her knife at high speeds right for her throat.

Rex's chains caught it just as it came within centimeters of her neck. Twilight fell to the ground with pure shock and gripped at her neck, itching at an old scar as familiarity twisted through her mind.

Rex threw the knife back into the arena. "Twilight, this is Princess Platinum. Ruler of the unicorns."

Though chill was completely gone, now the only thing outside of sheer confusion in Twilight's mind was absolute fear.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Yeah, I ended the scene on such a powerful note. This moment is meant to not just a literal punch but also a mental punch to the reader. I wanted Princess Platinum's introduction to be so drastically different from every version of her. However if you are familiar with my work you will notice a similarity between this scene and a previous introduction that Twilight once had before in my previous stories. As you read chapter 13 it will become very clearly what angle I'm going for.

Otherwise this chapter was mostly a comedy with a bit of world building. The fact the graveyard was the only b=place clean has massive reasons in the story.

Also we finally got more on the mysterious body jumping Thule. I'm loving the inclusion of this character in my story, he adds so much extra fun.

So much more was added with this chapter and so much more is still to come in the next chapter.

Don't forget to comment, like or favorite. Whichever you think is best. Want to keep with updates, follow me here or on my Twitter. [url= /Gryphonstar5678] /Gryphonstar5678[/url]


	15. S2 Chapter 13: Bold Princess

On the shores of a harbor looking out to the Celestial Sea, alone airship slowly approached. Pegasi gathered at the edge to greet the ship's arrival. They were a bit surprised it could even fly with the state it was in; The sides were covered in massive claw marks. The sails were blackened as if once ablaze. And the anchor was nothing but a cut rope now.

"It must have been attacked by the griffins. Those bastards." A white pegasus got closer.

"Sand Sky, I think it is actually a griffin airship?" A grey pegasus beside him spoke up. He pointed out to the wing and beak designs over the front.

"Impossible. We are at war with those griffins?" Sand Sky scratched his chin and reached out for the rope to pull it in. "Why would they land here?"

"Do you think they want to attack this dock?"

"Not with those damages." Sand Sky tied down the rope and walked over to the other rope that hung from the door, it was also torn, but in a different way. While the other rope showed signs of a knife the rope over the door looked as if it had been ripped. This was puzzling since if this was a griffin airship then the rope wouldn't have ripped so easily. The griffins prided themselves on making the finest ropes in all the land. After all the same kind of rope had to not only hold an airship in place but also even their cities. Such a rope like this would be hard enough the cut, but to flat out break was unheard of.

Hesitantly he reached for the door's rope and gave a hard pull. The rope held strong above the tear only adding more confusion. He looked up to the door as it creaked loudly and folded outward. "Though get a weapon ready just in case."

"Sure," The pegasus behind him pulled out a knife and stood ready as the door slowly descended.

"Welcome to Hikina Port-"

However, as they caught sight of what lay inside their weapons dropped to the ground as body after body poured out of the doorway like a flood.

"What... What is this?" Sand Sky could barely speak. Behind him the other pegasus had even less strength bolting into a full-on dash at the sight. "Saw Tooth-" He attempted to call upon his friend but was stopped at the sounds of crushing behind him.

Sand Sky slowly turned around to see his friend's skull getting crushed by a hippogriff's hand. From the angle this hippogriff was standing it appeared as if he had jumped from the airship.

"Yo, stallion. You should be looking above." The hippogriff spat in a terrible attempt to rap.

At the sight of his friend falling dead, Sand Sky unconsciously moved backward, not even realizing he was backing into the bodies until he was stopped by crashing into the chest of someone who clearly wasn't dead.

"Yo, maybe my warning shouldn't have been for you fool." The hippogriff spat at Sand Sky.

"Stop with your poor attempts to be cool, Sting." A voice spoke up from behind Sand Sky. The voice was rough and echoed as if speaking through a tube.

The pegasus knew there was someone behind him but he was too afraid to move, even as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Now tell me, how far is the nearest port to the Alicorn's Floating Citadel?" The one behind him spoke again.

"I... I... I... don't know..."

"Of course he doesn't know, Fiend," Sting yelled out.

"Hmm," The hand gripped tighter to the pegasus's shoulder. "Maybe he's just too scared to speak."

With that, a strange feeling slowly filled every part of Sand Sky's body. Starting from his shoulder and slowly making its way over everything. With each inch it traveled it became more and more clear this wasn't fear or even the darkest forms of dread, but rather as if something was slowly being sucked from his body.

Without warning his body jolted and his jaw clenched open. His flesh sank into place and finally, this strange feeling was instantly replaced by something he knew all too well, absolute agony.

He fell from the hand but the pain wouldn't stop. It now had no source as if his whole body was being attacked over and over and over. He struggled and twisted as his skin pulled tighter to his body. Screaming was all he could direct toward his attackers as they simply smiled at him.

More dock workers ran toward the noise only for them to fall as well, racking with the same feeling from before only to quickly follow Sand Sky in his screams.

Sting walked over to his brother and grabbed his hand. The power... the souls they were sucking out of these pegasi were slowly feeding into an orb as the center of the glove that Fiend wore.

"Oh, how delicious. These shall prove to be quite useful in our journey to attack the alicorns directly."

"It's all part of the plan," Sting laughed.

"What better way to called out our return."

"Then, that old teacher of our's won't dare be able to ignore us."

* * *

In Gelum Voce Pia loud noises continued to echo from the tent that surrounded the mighty crystal hand at the center of town. Inside Celestia was hard at work with several experiments.

"Test number fourty-five," she magically wrote on a note pad beside her. She floated over a bag of sand to the barrier. Opening it along the edge she moved it slowly around the barrier. The sand didn't fall, rather it leak out in a trail along the barrier following the bag, leaving a ring around the area. "It's like I thought space is being bent, and yet in no discernable direction. But why?" She placed down the note pad and placed a finger on her chin. Possibilities raced through her at incredible speeds before she finally came to the only conclusion. "Hmm, maybe the spell wasn't refined."

"Well, she did make it in a burst of the moment."

"Yeah, maybe-" She stopped as she noticed the other voice. Celestia quickly turned around only to see a dark blue pegasus with a cup of cider in his hand.

"I see you noticed me finally."

"I'm sorry," Celestia took a step back and properly faced him. "I tent to get too much into my work.

"You know, you remind me a lot of the one who created that." He took a drink of his cider.

"Wait, you know who made this?" Celestia's eyes lit up.

"Of course," He waved his hand to the exit. "Just follow me and we will talk about her over some drinks."

"I'm sorry... but I don't drink."

"You," The pegasus's eyes went wide. "A fine lass like yourself must have drunk plenty of times." He tilted his head to her.

Celestia brushed off the comment and laughed. "Well, it's not that I haven't drunk I just prefer not to."

"Well," he stopped halfway to get another drink. "I guess you don't want to learn about the one who made that."

"What?" Celestia placed her hand to her chest and leaned back in insult. "I do want to know-"

"Thenfollowusandfindout!" A green blur ran into the tent around Celestia.

"Hermes?!" The pegasus facepalmed in confusion.

The green blur ran toward the pegasus and around him several times before being stopped by a large steel color arm that had reached into the tent. A buffalo followed the hand.

"Thank you, Red Steel." The pegasus dropped his hand and looked to Celestia, who was not only confused now but on her guard due to the multiple intrusions. "I'm sorry, let's start over."

"Oh... okay. My name is Celestia, Princess of the Day."

"Oh, another alicorn, huh? I've already introduced Hermes and Red Steel." The pegasus pointed to each of them before pointing to himself. "And my name is Rainbow Dartz."

"Another alicorn? You mean to tell me an alicorn made this?" Celestia took their names with kindness and walked forward. She was now extremely intrested upon finding this important detail. She held her hand out to them as an offer of trust.

"Yes, her name is Twilight Sparkle." Rainbow Dartz took the hand and shook tightly. The four walked out of the tent and to the nearest bar.

* * *

Back under the unicorn capital Starlight and Silver Pear were quite in a predicament. They had escaped the naga's stomach through him puking and now darkness covered their eyes as the bile moved around.

Neither one opening their eyes out of fear. Neither one realizing what position they were in until Starlight felt a large bump hit against her gut. She opened her eyes only to see her chest was still stuffed in Silver Pear's face and her legs were laid wide over his loins. She deadpanned once her mind answered quite quickly what was bumping against her gut.

With a swift kick to the legs, she pushed herself upward and took a few steps back before attempting to remove the slime from her body. She looked to Silver Pear and his apparent rather large bump for about two seconds before pulling back in disgust. "No, no, no, that would have been too dis-"

"Disturbing!" Starswirl appeared behind her.

"Yes..." She turned around and stopped at the sight of the dictionary in his hand. A frown flooded her face and she placed her hand over the book. Without warning, it bursted into flames before freezing solid and shattering to dust.

"I'll take that as a no for my future name?" Starswirl gave a small frown. "Either..." Within a second though this sadness was gone as he flew around them with towels to clean them off as he hopped in the air with joy. "You did it, you did it, you did it!"

"What?" Silver Pear could barely compute what happened as he was still reacting to the kick.

"You opened the package!" Starswirl cheered louder. "You succeed in your mission!" He flew up to the naga and bowed, "Thank you, Diamondback Gust, for your work."

The naga twisted back and forth in revilement. "...Of course, old friend."

"Wait, mission?!" Starlight's eyes flared red. "So you did attempt to kill us?!"

"No," Starswirl waved his hands at them. "This was a test, a test of duty, honor, even friendship."

"How did any of this deal with friendship?" Silver Pear finally picked himself up.

"Now, I can see why your only friend in the future is the bum that lives outside the city and talks to her animal friends." Starlight accidentally slipped in words.

"Oh really?" Starswirl pulled out a notebook and took down every word before Starlight could stop herself. "Is this friend nice and kind?"

"-" Starlight forced her mouth shut upon realizing what she just said.

"Hmm," Starswirl twirled in the air until he was upsidedown and floated right up to Starlight. He looked deeply into her eyes before putting down more notes. "You truly are a strange mare. You also think this bum outside of town is hot?"

"No! I didn't say that?!" Starlight screamed aloud.

"No, you thought it." He pointed his quill at her.

"Well..." Starlight's eyes waved back and forth before she finally answered. "As far as my spying went, everyone in that town has the hots for Flutter- She grabbed her mouth shut again.

"Okay, okay, Lovely." Silver Pear walked over and pushed Starlight aside before Starswirl could prop more into her mind.

"Either way, I think I have enough data to finally start trusting you two." Starswirl snapped his fingers, the notepad and the ashes of the dictionary floated together before vanishing.

"Wait, this also a test of trust!" Starlight's rage was now at a burning point.

"Of course, I need to trust my newest student."

"New..." Starlight's rage faded at that word and she repeated herself, "Newest students."

"Newest student," Starswirl pointed to her alone in his correction. He then poofed over to Silver Pear and shook his hand. "Sorry, I put you through so much pain for her sake."

"No problem at all..." He spoke with uncertainty. "But I'm the one who opened the bag."

Starswirl stopped shaking the hand as his eyes went wide. "Wait you did it?" He was completely in shock. He put this whole thing into action to test Starlight and Silver Pear was the one who completed the deed. "Impossible."

"As much as I don't want to admit it now. He actually save us both." Starlight placed her hand over her eyes in a poor attempt to wipe away the images from inside where he reached all around her to save the day. In the back of her mind she screamed, "That is the last time I tie something around my hips while around that pervert!"

"Well, this is unexpected." Starswirl poofed over to the naga and sat on his head. Puzzling poured through the old wizard's brain until finally an idea came to form. "Tell me Diamondback Gust, did you notice any strange taste during your meal?"

"Well, outside of the sweat taste of heat sweat-"

"I was not in heat!" Starlight shouted in the background.

"There was also the taste of..." The naga stopped for a moment and flicked his tongue twice. He peered over to Silver Pear. He licked his tongue over Silver Pear softly before pulling back. "Hmm, he taste just like an inugami."

"An inu- what now?"

"An inugami is a type of wolf spirit." Starswirl poofed up a new book. "Much like the wolf that kidnapped your mother."

"What?" Silver Pear's eyes went wide.

"Yes, when Rex told me that an inugami was seen during the battle I did a bit of research just in case." Starswirl flipped through the book incredibly fast. "I found that the bar your family own, the Wolf's Apple was once connected to a series of sighting and rapes commited by an inugami nearly two hundred years ago."

"Rapes..." Silver Pear's voice went shallow.

Starswirl slammed the book to bring the earth pony's attention back to him. "You don't need to take that last part too serious as I believe the inugami from two hundred years ago and the one who took your mother were separate beings, but most certainly connected." He poofed in front of Silver Pear and handed him the book. "I didn't know what I should do with this information since in the end it led to no answers about Indigo Frost or why he has an inugami under his command. So I closed the literal book on it and thought nothing more of it." He walked right up to Silver pear's ear and spoke a bit softer so Starlight couldn't hear the last part. "But considering you have the same taste as a inugami and at least two inugami are directly connected to you in some way really brings things into perspective."

Silver Pear attempted to question but Starswirl floated away and turned to the naga. The old wizard gave the large snake a bow. He floated his popcorn back over to his hands and opened a portal. "Enough of curiousness, we must meet up with the others."

"Right..." Starlight turned her head away from him.

"Also it would be helpful for you to know that Princess Platinum has a young naga under her employ." Starswirl brought some popcorn to his mouth and munched away.

"Great..." Starlight deadpanned as the three of them entered the portal.

* * *

Back in the center of Geländehorn, with the great castle in the garden, they had searched so long that Twilight was nearly out of breath. She heard Rex's words but it took a few moments for it all to soak in. Standing just a few meters from her, staring back at her with determination and a cold glare was the princess that had or at least would soon lead the unicorns through the events of Hearth's Warming. Twilight knew she might get to meet some of the figures from this event in history, but meeting this one in particular up close was far more then she bargained for.

"Unicorn, answer me!" Princess Platinum pointed right at Twilight. Twilight looked in confusion, almost forgetting she was in disguise to hide her alicornship so the princess wouldn't realize the obvious.

"I'm sorry," Twilight picked herself off the ground. "Right, you want to know why we are here. We are here to stop the-"

Rex waved his hand in front of Twilight. "You need not ask her. Our true purpose doesn't align with her's."

"Interesting," Princess Platinum turned her hand away from Twilight and to the referee. "Dim, towel."

On that, the referee walked forward from the shadows. Much to Rex's surprise, the referee was a naga at a young age... well young age for a naga. The naga was black with green frills and a broad sword at his side. He was built differently then most naga he has seen before as this one still had both his arms and legs. If he didn't know better he was have mistook the beast for a dragon, but it's much longer tail and lack of wings proved that to be wrong.

The naga handed the princess the towel and smiled, "You did well, but we can't fight with dead soldiers."

"A weak soldier is no more useful than a dead one." She grabbed the towel and cleaned off.

"As my ally was saying, we are here on an important mission." Clover took this moment to walk forward. "We are searching for an important artifact."

Twilight was caught completely off guard by Clover's words. She originally assumed that Rex intrupted her earlier because she had overstepped beforehand.

"An artifact. What sort of artifact?"

"An alathar." Rex followed slowly behind Clover. "Nine special objects that hold incredible power. According to our notes, the crystal ponies left one with your family."

"Hmm, that could help me in the coming war." Princess Platinum gave a bold grin. "However if you are searching for something like that, I'm afraid it's out of both our reaches."

"What do you mean?" Clover was caught off guard.

"Though my family never spoke of an object known as an alathar, they did speak of sealing something away in the Four Towers of Faith."

"And that problem how?"

"It's currently under the control of the alicorn, Blood Diamond."

Hearing that name sent a chill through Rex's whole body, so much so that he actually backed up a few steps. "Why would Topaz Silk send him?"

Twilight looked to Rex and then to Clover. She was so confused. She thought the mission was to stop the war. She knew Indigo Frost was after these alathars, but she saw the greater threat as being the war, especially if it brought forth problems for the events that would soon approach.

"I see you heard of him." Princess Platinum exited the arena and walked to them slowly. "I heard that he slaughtered an entire army of zebras a few weeks ago. That he is considered the most to be a loyalest and most vicious of the alicorns. So sternly strong in his work he won't falter once in his mission until it is complete." Finally, she arrived in front of the three of them and looked at each of them over. "I see great strength in all of you, yet it's clear neither of you would dare face him. Even if it is for this item, that of which I doubt he even knows is there."

"I will!" Twilight spoke up without a single hesitation.

This cold and strong statement brought curiosity to the Princess as she raced straight to Twilight and looked deep into her face. At this range, Twilight could finally get a good look at the unicorn princess.

Princess Platinum wore a silver short dress and cloth entwisted armor over her b cup. Her cape was just as bold of a royal purple as the history books always said. However, her mane was red, not blue and tied tightly behind her head. In her hand a rapier with a hilt covered in scales. She was both elegant and fearsome all at the same time.

Being this close it was obvious that she stood just barely shorter than Twilight. It was far more clear she was younger than the books always said, in fact, the princess was younger then Twilight. Easily just barely reaching adult age yet her face was filled with so much rage. Her eyes filled an age that far excessed her appearance.

It was like looking it a mirror for Twilight. Both of them despite their young ages had clearly seen far more bloodshed then one ever should. Both had lived such harsher lives far too early. Yet there was a separation, where Twilight hadn't give up hope, there was no hope in this princess's glare.

Princess Platinum smirked as if she was seeing the same thing Twilight seeing, but maybe seeing even more then even Twilight was catching onto. She jumped back and pulled up her rapier. She placed the tip right against Twilight, moving it right up to the eyepatch. Despite how close it got, Twilight didn't flinch once, she didn't want to insult herself or her allies.

"Fine, you will go if you can beat me in Todeskampf."

Twilight was completely taken back by the princess's words. She had no idea at all what Todeskampf even was. But it was clear there was a danger as shown when the naga quickly stepped between them.

"Dim, what are you doing?"

"Princess Mira Platinum, I cannot allow such a battle!"

The princess's eyes went wide at his words and in particular the use of certain words. "Well, Dimitri Dawn Dusk," She took a stepped forward and leaned right into his face, speaking forth his full name back as he did hers. "She thinks she can face Blood Diamond herself, let see her prove it."

"I accept," Twilight's words brought a shock to them all. "Only if..." Though her actions up till now were strong, she didn't know how to place these next words to make them have the most impact and hopefully sway the princess to the idea.

"Well, what?" Princess Platinum's words tore through Twilight's attempts to buy time.

"I accept if you surrender this war and attempt to talk to the alicorns about bringing peace."

Silence fell overall. Rex stood in the back with disappointment. In truth, he believed peace was a pointless endeavor simply trying would put themselves behind Indigo Frost in the search of the alathars. The alathars took far higher importance and he couldn't let this upstart get in the way any longer. Exhaling heavily he walked forward to try and mend this and get back to the true danger at hand.

However, Princess Platinum pulled back in utter laughter. This action sent confusion everywhere, including through the naga. It actually took a few moments before she could finally answer. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It just I've never heard of such an absurd demand."

"It's... not that bad, Rarit-"Twilight quickly stopped herself.

"No, it's bad, very bad. But an offer I can't really ignore." Princess Platinum put her rapier up and held out her hand. "We will battle."

Twilight took the hand and shook it, before quickly pulling back. "Wait, as in battle now."

"No, tomorrow morning. It's getting late and I'm getting hungry." Princess Platinum pulled her arms back and stretched into a pop. "Plus, I tore string in dress during my last bout."

"Nothing changes," Twilight laughed. Her wording confused all of them, to which she waved the wording away with a burst of shyness laughter. "Nevermind, we will fight in this Todeskampf tomorrow."

"You're fighting in a death battle!" The sound of a popcorn bag falling to the ground brought their attention to Starswirl, who was standing a few feet away with Starlight and Silver Pear, surrounded by slowly vanishing portal.

Twilight's eyes went wide. "Wait, what?!"

"Indeed, and the kind that can't be undone once accepted." Princess Platinum gave her the biggest smile yet before clapping her hands. Out of nowhere guards appeared and surrounded all of them. "Now, my guards will take you three to some quarters. We will all have dinner in an hour. As for the rest, they will quickly leave, or be executed."

Twilight's shoulders fell and her sight followed with it, a frown made things more obvious. "What did I just do?"

"Sounds like you just fucked history harder then Silver Pear does a tree," Starlight deadpanned.

"Hey, I only did that once," He barked back. "And I was really-" He was stopped and the guards pushed him, Starlight and Starswirl to the nearest exit.

* * *

Deep within the north tower of the Four Towers of Faith, Blood Diamond sat on a throne he forged with crystal. He watched as several mini gem figures floated through the room dancing to his entertainment. They weren't sentient like the sculptures that Indigo Frost could create rather these moved as if on strings, following his eyes over the room.

The room itself was slowly cleaned of all dust by each twist and turn the gems made. It was darkened by the dust, but clearing things up showed a white marble floor with sapphire pillars and sturdy wooden tables. In the center was a ball of pure crystal hanging from the ceiling. Small crystal shards hanged from it. Though some pieces were missing, Blood Diamond's spell quickly made sure each piece was replaced.

"This is truly an insult to our father." He raised his hands finally and gestured to the two towers closest to his sight. He turned his head over to his right and smiled. "You can show yourself, Stygian."

Out of the darkness beside him, a tall white unicorn with a short cut blue mane draped in shadows like a cloak walked forward. "You called upon me."

"Yes, what do you think of this insult?"

Stygian looked over it all with confusion. "I assumed you called me to deal with Rex."

"Answer the question," Blood Diamond glared at him. "You, yourself are a unicorn. Only you could understand such reasons."

"I haven't been a true unicorn for a long time." His hand reached out from the cloak and showed weak and wrinkled flesh. "But I do remember my kind to be a prideful race."

"Good answer." Blood Diamond pulled back his hand and stood up.

"Is this why am I truly here? To answer questions about my kind?"

"You were once a unicorn, therefore you can help us better understand these mortals and why they would seek war with us."

"Yes, they would seek war?" Stygian raised an eyebrow to that. "But, your father was the one who made the declaration." He turned back around, "Am I right?"

"Actually, we do not believe that King Emerald Teal would make such a weak claim."

"True, he would rather wipe out the entire species without a single warning."

"Indeed, hence the reason you are here." Blood Diamond walked over to the window. "I want you to spy on them without Rex noticing you."

"Why not send Cold Blue. You trust him more than you trust me."

Blood Diamond turned away from the window and frowned. "Actually, he seems distracted lately."

"Cold Blue distracted, that is a first."

"He doesn't want me to notice, but there are times as if he's not here."

"Fine, I will go explore." On that Stygian faded back into the shadows and out of sight.

* * *

Hidden deep inside the castle in a room chosen for her Twilight could do nothing but hyperventilate and shake back and forth on the bed. Her mind raced on every possibility that could happen tomorrow.

Clover and Rex stood outside her room waiting for an answer. They both knew she screwed up, but how badly depended solely on her next actions.

"She has been at this for an hour." Rex huffed in annoyance.

"Fine, I'll go in." Clover got tired of waiting. She turned to the door and entered the room.

Twilight refused to move from her spot and barely even noticed Clover as she stepped over to the bed. Taking a seat on the far end Clover reached over slowly until Twilight finally noticed her.

Twilight's eye traced over Clover's actions before slowing her breath. "What are you doing in here?"

"Checking on you." Clover retracted her hand. "Rex isn't the best when it comes to these types of talks." She looked downward at her reasons. "Truthfully, he's never been good with children."

"Child?" Twilight pulled back, "I'm nearly twenty-one."

"Huh, just sis years younger than me and yet to him." Clover's legs crossed and her hands came together. "Either way, you need to stop pouting like a child."

"I'm not, I'm... calculating!" Twilight threw her arms about.

"Wow, you and he are too similar," Clover whispered under her breath. "Damn Starswirl..."

"What?" Twilight questioned the lowering of her voice.

"I mean, what is there to worry about?" Clover turned to her with a smile. "So what? If you lose we will just have Rex teleport you out of there. It's not the first time he disobeyed the laws of a kingdom."

"Losing to her is not my fear," Twilight fell back into the wall. "I mean what if I kill her?"

"Wow, vain much..." Clover whispered. "I guess Starswirl was wrong."

"He was wrong about what?" Twilight questioned, revealing that she could hear all her words.

"Wait, how much did you hear?" Clover's eyes went wide.

"Clover, you do realize I watched you do a sound spell-like twice." Twilight a sheepish smile.

"Why would you need that spell on now?" Clover raised a hand to her, inadvertently waving her finger back and forth.

Twilight let go of her sheepishness and laughed at the sight Clover was giving.

"Wait, why are you laughing at me?" Clover practically roared.

"It's nothing, you just reminded me of someone." Twilight sat up and gave another much small laugh before reaching over and hugging Clover tightly. "I knew I was right about you."

"Right about what?" Clover was even more confused than ever now but returned the hug anyway. "Look, just try your best and if things go terribly wrong we will pull you out of there."

"Thank you..." Twilight worded that last word with her mouth but luckily caught herself from saying it aloud. Though this little meeting did amplify the possibility there was always the chance she could be wrong. Either way, she was happy enough to know more about her favorite idol in history, and more if her assumptions were completely right.

* * *

The dining room was warm with the light of candles and the steam of finely cook kelp dressed around rice, cucumbers and avocado slices. In the center were both sides of sushi and thinly slice fried chicken with some worcester sauce for dipping.

Twilight slowly walked around it and took in all the smells. It was truly the most please plate of food she had seen in years.

Everything was placed on a small table with five chairs around it. She certainly noticed how small the table was and that another table would have been far more suited. In the back, a much larger table caught her eye. It laid on its side completely covered in dust from lack of use. She walked to it but was stopped by Clover.

Clover gave her a discerning nod and guided her to a chair right near the front of the small table, just in time as Princess Platinum walked in.

The princess wore a large bottom dress that drastically went against everything else that she wore before. It was so loud and proud. Seeing this almost put Twilight's still biting nervousness at ease. There was a familiarity with this and it calmed her greatly.

Following behind Princess Platinum was her loyal guard, Dimitri Dusk. He quickly moved to the table and pulled out two chairs. Princess Platinum took a seat next to Twilight and Dimitri took a seat next to the princess. Clover and Rex took the two remaining seats.

The table stayed quiet and still for a good three minutes once everyone was seated. However to Twilight, this still only amplified her fear. Her sight wondered over them. Rex stayed quiet and stared off into space as if there were far more important stuff on his mind, this was no surprise to her since her little move went completely against his own plan. Clover was the complete opposite, she kept and attend look, making sure everything was completely clean around her, it was completely against everything Twilight had learned about the mare.

Clover's actions made Twilight remember back to her words and that maybe indeed Clover would be just as nervous if not more even though her life wasn't the one on the line.

"Now, we eat..." Princess Platinum spoke up before Twilight could gauge her reasoning for being so silent at a dinner she demanded. Even though she was sitting right next to Twilight, Twilight had neglected to scan her attitude until it was too late.

All she could do now was watch the food pass by. Princess Platinum went for the sushi and dipped it into the sauce, Bringing to her mouth she chewed softly and swallowed before Dimitri followed her action. Twilight decided to push through the nervousness with the food and went in after them. She, however, didn't realize that Clover waited until last to grab her pieces.

The meal moved by rather slow at first before speeding up. Though there was movement there were still no words being spoken outside of Princess Platinum's first line. Instead, both the princess and her loyal guard stayed quiet and continue to eat.

Despite Twilight's fears at first, the meal was very peaceful. and did much to calm her mind for the oncoming battle tomorrow.

* * *

Miles away in another city altogether in a bar surrounded by cider things couldn't be more the opposite. Loud clapping and clashing of cups and laughter echoed back and forth as Rainbow Dartz pushed down more and more drinks.

Celestia was quite surprised by this pegasus's endurance. Meanwhile, Hermes ran around serving drinks and jumping around getting out what energy he had built up. Everything seemed so fun, but it had been over an hour and these creatures had yet to tell Celestia very much about this Twilight Sparkle. She was happy purely because they were happy, but also hiding her annoyance to their lack of foresight.

Seeing that this drinking was getting her nowhere and fearing that Golden Williams would walk up and find her in this place she attempted to mend things. She knew if he found her in such a place she would not hear the end of it.

With a quick move of magic, she vanished the cider from their cups and placed down her cup rather calmly.

Rainbow Dartz took a few sips of the empty cup before noticing. "Damn, empty already? Of course, this place is nothing compared to the Wolf's Apple."

"And that place?" Celestia poised, hoping to get more out instead of just more drinking.

"That was the place where Twilight lived."

"Really?" Celestia's eyes lit up. "Where is this Wolf's Apple?"

"It was destroyed the same day that Twilight left, a little over ten days ago." His answer caught Celestia completely off guard. She looked back to the thoughts she had when she first arrived in this town, the ruin buildings being slowly rebuilt.

Even the simplest of minds could see this town had survived a hellish event. However, she didn't think for a minute that it was connected to the one responsible for the crystal hand in the center.

"I'm assuming she made that on the same day she left?" Celestia questioned to see if there was any possibility of her assumptions.

"Yes, she made that on that day and vanished."

"So she caused the prob-"

A loud slam interrupted. She looked to her left to see the sound had come from Red Steel. Though he hadn't said a word, the anger in his eyes showed she made the wrong assumptions with her last move.

"No, she didn't." Rainbow Dartz affirmed it. "She left after a wendigo named Indigo Frost destroyed everything."

"A wendigo..." Celestia fell back in her seat. She had heard the rumors about this Indigo Frost, but she didn't believe them until now. She could see the pain in their eyes toward that name.

"He destroyed everything..." Hermes stopped out of nowhere and sat down beside them. He had never been so calm until now. "I saw it all too, Twilight and her student, the powerful Starlight Glimmer fought their way to the beast." He stopped as his hands began to shake. Red Steel gripped his hands to calm away his tears.

Celestia was now even more surprised. She had assumed these were just a bunch of drunks and while that assumption certainly wasn't wrong, it was wrong to assume that they were only like this today because they were drunks.

Just by looking at them, the mere mentions of this Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer had brought forth much sorrow in remembrance of these friends. It made her smile at the fact such friendship could exist in the world.

Celestia's ideas on friendship were vastly different from their's, but she felt a kinship in their mourning for their lost friends. Taking a deep breath she lit her horn and refilled their cups with cider.

"I can see they meant a lot to you. I can understand if you wish to take your time explaining things to me. For now, let's just enjoy this drink." Celestia raised her cup to them and they did the same.

"Here, here!" They all cheered as one and went back to drinking. Their drinking continued for much later on and into the night.

In the background unbeknownst to Celestia and the others, whispers and stares followed her every movement. Eyes of rage and hatred watched her from the shadows.

* * *

On the docks of Hikina, Luna's airship landed. She had just barely returned from Griffinstone. Her face was covered in annoyance as her mission was a complete failure. The reports of the explosion were weak at best and the site of the reports barely had a piece of evidence to gather as nearly everything was gone. It was clear there was an explosion but nothing else. The griffins themselves were on the complete defensive, trying to make her leave the entire time. She didn't know if it was because of the explosion or the war they were currently having with the pegasi. Either way she was on her final stop before heading home so she docked long enough to get some final supplies and head home.

However upon exiting she found the docks incredibly quiet and extremely empty. She was caught off guard by the sheer lack of anypony working, even though it was evening this place should have been at least somewhat packed.

What was even weirder was the appearance of everything. Stuff was lying out in the open as if everypony abruptly left. There was an eerie silence, so quiet that one could hear a mouse chewing on wood, that is if there were any mice.

"Fan out, something is very wrong here." She held up her hand and swung outward and her guards exited the ship and walked over the dock.

The soldiers checked all the boxes and all the areas. Luna moved back to the airship and leaned against it. She hoped there would be some answers soon as she didn't want to stay here any longer.

She remembered back to Blood Diamond's words. No other creature could ever make her so angry. Blood Diamond always knew what buttons to press even if he was speaking through his soldiers.

"His soldiers…" Hearing the word made her mind wandered back to his most loyal and each time her mind fell on his former and best, Rex Moba. She looked up and spoke Rex's named softly. "I wonder how close Rex and Clover are getting now."

"Princess Luna," One of her soldiers ran back over and bowed.

"Damn it," She screamed as the images faded from her mind. "You know not to bother me when I'm lost in thought." She raised her hand to strike him down, but stopped halfway when she finally caught up with herself.

"I'm sorry, Princess of the Night." He adjusted his words in hopes of adjusting any punishment he expected from her.

"Nevermind," She exhaled heavily. "What have you found?"

"It's better if I show you."

"Fine, lead the way." She straightened herself and placed her hands on her wave swords by her side. She knew from the dread in his eyes something was truly wrong.

* * *

Author's notes:

So this was a hefty chapter So much was covered. Let me just go over the base details. Yes, Stygian is canon to my universe, well at least a slightly altered version of him. You will see more of him in this story and what changes I have made. I think you will like what I have done with him. As for Princess Platinum, yes I know their have been many, many, many fan versions of her being a perfect copy of Rarity and frankly I find that version kind of boring. Not to say I didn't use some Rarity flare, it's certainly their but I've tossed in my takes on Rarity as well. In particular the version of Rarity I showed off in the Endless Time of Forever End. Princess Platinum takes a lot of cues from that version. I also added a bit of japanese flare to reference the japanese style of unicorns that were shown in the show during season eight.

This chapter was a lot of fun to write. However I did run into some bumps like being without internet for a good portion of the work. I still got plenty done though and I'm very glad to get this chapter finished before the deadline.

Sorry this came out late, but hey what better time than Thanksgiving. I didn't get finished with plenty of time to spare, but Thanksgiving turned out to be more than I expected.

Don't forget to comment, like or favorite. Whichever you think is best. Want to keep with updates, follow me here or on my Twitter. /Gryphonstar5678


	16. S2 Chapter 14: Time Honored Truth

The Sun reached it's lowest point over Gelum Voce Pia. Celestia was so distracted by the fun the rest of the group was having she hadn't even noticed.

"That's another ten points," Hermes remarked as he ripped out the dart and ran passed another dart flying through the air nearly as fast as him. He stopped by and dropped off the dart by Rainbow Dartz before marking the points on a board they had nearby. Finally running back over to repeat the process.

"See, this is my talent." Rainbow Dartz took another sip of his cider before throwing another dart.

"I don't think being completely drunk while throwing darts counts as a talent," Celestia commented.

"It is when I still have perfect aim, despite seeing two boards." Rainbow Dartz failed to realize his next shot was about to stab Hermes in the hand.

"What were the points on that one?" Rainbow Dartz questioned Hermes's silence.

"I don't know, the dart just vanished." Hermes's face was covered in confusion as he saw it vanish just mere centimeters from his feathers.

"Are you saying I missed?"

"No, your aim was too perfect," Celestia twirled the dart in her fingers.

Rainbow Dartz didn't question it and instead huffed in annoyance when he heard Red Steel laughing toward the trick. He turned away and looked toward the window seeing the Sun getting low. "Huh, I guess it's getting late."

Hermes rushed by to a stop and tapped him on the shoulder. "Actually the Sun has been completely still for ten whole minutes, it's quite weird."

A loud spit take stopped all of them. They turned to see Celestia with the reddest face. "No, no, no father will be furious with me." She jumped up and rushed outside.

Celestia rushed to the opening in the center of town where she had her tent. She stopped there and took a breath before looking around. To the left, right, front and back she kept a close eye out of everything only to jump at the sight of them following her.

"What's wrong?" Hermes questioned.

"No, no, no, go back to the bar. I need to do this alone." Celestia attempted to push them away with her magic.

"Why? What are you doing?" Rainbow Dartz questioned. "You better not be leaving as she did."

Celestia dropped her magic at his words but still held a defensive stance. "You can't see this."

Red Steel walked forward and stopped right in front of her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and smiled before bowing. This action caught the other two completely off guard. Red Steel turned to the others and without ever needing to say a word sat down and they followed.

Celestia looked to each of them, though the others were listening to the voiceless words of this buffalo she was still a bit uneasy about this. However, the buffalo gave her a nod and she finally gave in. "Fine."

She turned toward the Sun and lit her horn brightly with yellow magic. In the sky, the Sun glowed with the same color. She moved her horn downward and the Sun followed suit.

The three gasped at her actions and power. Under her breath, she whispered, "This is my power, but is it as good as your's Twilight Sparkle?" her eyes fell upon the towering crystal hand in front of them and smiled. "Just what gave you such power?"

In the distance more figures watched them. The sight of her moving the Sun with such ease was both shocking and so scary to these figures. Rage only grew more in their eyes.

The Sun's light wained over the unicorn capital, gracing it's mirror walls with purple and orange light that shined back and forth through each building making each one shine brighter. This acted perfectly as a nightly light for the city even as the sun faded from sight.

Lady Cat carried Adagio to the Titan Airship. The little siren had such a great day, best shown by her poor attempts to fight off a heavy yawn.

"Calm down little one," Fredricson commented as he opened the airship. "You can have more fun tomorrow."

"Fun? It would be fun if my sisters were here," Adagio puffed.

"I'm certain we will find them soon, honey." Lady Cat walked through the opening and to Adagio's room. She carefully placed the filly on to the bed and pulled the covers over her before brushing her mane to the side. "For now you need to get some sleep."

"No, no, no," Adagio struggled, "I want a story first then. Grandpa always told us a story."

"Eye, but you didn't ask for one yesterday, or the day before that." Fredricson adjusted the covers. "Why would ye want one now?"

"Becuase it would make me feel closer to my siblings," the little filly was quick to explain.

"Fine, I know of a tale. Be a credible tale indeed." He waved his finger to Adagio before poking her on the nose. "About a once mighty lord named Sir Sereal Platinum and the love he had for his daughter."

Deep within the castle, Twilight yawned and stretched as she walked to the room she had been given. She mentally facepalmed herself for her earlier ignorance. Previously, she had been so busy being worried about this day's actions that she didn't even try to study the room she had been given. She took a mental note to remember to grab out a notepad in the morning.

She was glad that the princess allowed her to go to her room without any guards following her. She figured that the food must have calmed her down. However, the todeskampf couldn't be undone even in the princess's happiest of moods.

Twilight just had to get past two more turns and her room would be in sight. Soon though she came upon a fork in the path. She looked both ways before going down the right way. However, she was stopped at the sound of splashing.

She walked back and looked through the left way. At first, she didn't see anything, until another splashing sound made her narrow her eyes. She saw another turn in the distance and smoke coming from it.

Curiosity twisting her arm she took the left turn all the way to the new turn. She saw this one led to an opening to two more turns and a door in the center. She noted the smoke was coming from the door. She lifted her nose and took in the smoke.

It wasn't fire or ash, instead, it emanated of daisies and daffodils. She walked closer and took in a deeper smell. Next was the smell of soap and candles. She jumped back at a voice from behind the door.

"We shouldn't be doing this... again."

She grasped as it sounded so familiar. She walked right up to the wall and lit her horn with magic. Using an alter vision spell she slowly peeked through the wall. It was a large bathroom. Inside was the naga, Dim Dusk sitting down.

She figured it was his voice she heard, but to whom he was talking to only perplexed her. However, it took her a long minute to realize that he only had a towel covering his very naked body. But this wasn't what made her eyes grow wider.

The splashing sound returned and out of the rather large tub of thick bubbles was a very naked Princess Platinum.

"Please, join me," Princess Platinum pulled at his arm.

"No... Mira, you need to be ready for the battle tomorrow."

"What? I can't have some fun with my loyal guardian, first." Princess Platinum almost purred. The mare pulled the naga closer.

Twilight jumped and covered her mouth to hide her gasping at the sight of the princess locking a deep kiss with the naga.

"The battle could be dangerous." The naga pulled back. "You should be resting."

"Dangerous," Mira laughed at his words. "You forget yourself." She pointed her hand at him as if she was holding her rapier. "I am the ruler of this land, I can't simply hide from danger."

"Yes but," He was stopped as she leaned down placing her breast against his chest. The mare took one arm around the back of his neck, locking him in another kiss.

"Yes, really, I should be relaxing." She traced her fingers through his back frills. "But would that ever stop this reckless streak."

Dim Dusk pulled back again and looked to a small window. "No, it would never."

Twilight knew even from this maze of a castle that window could only be facing the garden. Was something stopping him? She questioned. Liting her horn a darker more maroon color she looked to his head. She saw thoughts bubble into an old memory. She sat down and calmed her mind to listen.

A new spell charged out from her horn. The world around Twilight slowed so that though the memory only lasted a moment for Dim it was longer for her so she could perfectly grasp what was happening in his thoughts.

The naga's mind moved back many years ago to a much younger version of himself. Twilight watching this all narrowed her sight on him. In this time he was no younger than ten years at best. This shocked her, for he was fully clothed in armor and even already had a few battle scars.

The young naga stood in front of a door in silence. His hand had been attempting to reach for the knob, but hesitation grip tightly to his arm.

"There he is again." A small whisper passed as two nurses walked by. "Still unable to face his master."

"What do you expect?" the other nurse spoke softer. "After putting her in such dangers how can he face her now?"

Their words stung through his chest making his reach feel even harder. It was like his hand was as heavy as a massive lead pipe. Moments passed as he gritted his teeth, more shameful words passed by from others.

"He should just give up."

"There is no way his master could ever look at him the same way."

"He should just leave."

"He is as worthless as the previous guardian."

Each line piecer his pride like a knife before twisting multiple times with each successive line. Finally, he dropped his hand and turned away from the door. Hearing the sighs of relief only brought more shame.

"Stop Dimitri." A voice broke through the fog of doubt.

He turned to see a white unicorn stallion clad in royal armor and a snowy white cloak. He quickly bowed at the sight of him. "I'm sorry, Sir Sereal Platinum."

Twilight's sight of the memory nearly loosened at the sight of Sereal as this stallion perfectly matched the statue in the garden. Not even a wrinkle was out of place. It was as if the statue had been carved just days after or before this event.

"Raise yourself." The lord waved his hand over him. "You need to stop comparing yourself to your father."

"But I failed again."

"He failed many times in protecting me, my father and my grandfather and his father. Your family has been protecting mine ever since my ancestor saved your clan from the evil tentacles of Thule." Sereal turned toward the door. "It's not your fault, you first charged turned out to be as much of a defiance as her mother." He opened the door without any hesitation. "Come on, I'm sure my little girl misses you."

"..." His fist tightened but he relented none the less. "Fine."

Inside a little Mira Platinum laid resting in a bed. Three different IVs hooked up to her. These led to three different pouches. One, red obvious to be blood, another clear, more obvious to be water, the third which was nearly empty was maroon and far thicker.

Twilight was preplexed as this maroon liquid looked to be the very same hue as the liquid Starlight told her she had been puking during the transformation she nearly achieved not but eleven days ago.

Sereal looked to this maroon one and a sad frown crept through his smile for only a moment. "Don't worry dear, Dr. Pr. Halo's allies provided me with more." He reached into his cloak and pulled out another one. He placed it beside a stack of full ones ready to be used.

Dim looked to the stack and finally gave a small chuckle. "You were right to always keep the extra bashes on standby."

"There, see." Sereal looked to Dim and patted him on the head. "I knew you could smile at things."

"Yeah..." Dim looked to Mira and the sadness returned.

Twilight was even more curious now as the princess looked far different than her modern self. Mira was so frail and thin, her fur was barely hanging on. Over her arms black lines traced. This was certainly a unique disease that Twilight was completely unfamiliar with. What made things even stranger was the fact that the modern version had no signs of ever having this sickness.

"She is only five..." Dim attempted to look away.

"Yes, yet even at this age this disease won't dare kick her down."

Dim looked to his lord hoping those words would bring more hope. However, Sereal only kept his eyes on his daughter. The lord's smile was the only hope in sight as deep within his eyes was far more sadness than Dim could ever compute. Dim turned away and gritted his teeth again. "If only I hadn't let her go outside."

"Don't you dare!" Sereal's voice raised only once. It was the first Dim ever heard it raised. Which is why it wasn't surprising that the naga jumped back in fear.

"I won't always be around." Sereal's voice softened once more as he took a seat. He took his daughter's hand and gripped it tightly. "So, don't you dare stop spoiling her. Give her everything she desires no matter what it might be. She needs so much of it."

"Of course, my lord." Dim lowered his head and took a seat. The two sat quietly and listened to the heart monitor.

Twilight turned away from the memory as it faded. She opened her eyes and time resumed in the real world.

Only nanoseconds had passed for everyone else. Twilight took a deep breath and weakened her horn's power back to alter sight and continued to watch them.

"What we have... what we are..." Dim attempted to speak.

"That's never stopped you before." Mira's free hand reached down to his towel. "Please..." Her hand reached into the towel and Dim's face jerked forward. The princess bit at his lips before removing his towel and motion her arm back and forth. He jerked once more. She broke the kiss and hummed with delight. "Spoil me!" With that, she pulled him into the tub and they were both consumed by the bubbles.

Twilight dropped her magic and turned away from the wall, perfectly fine to leave them to their privacy. She walked back to the fork and took the right turn this time.

She got about halfway before crashing into Starlight. The two tumbled away from each other. Twilight blinked a few times before raising her hand up to Starlight and pointing at her in an annoyed motion. "What are you doing here?"

"Shush, shush," Starlight attempted to gain control of the situation. "I'm here to help-" However Starlight was quickly silenced by the magical grasp of Twilight.

"Don't shush me, I am your teacher." Twilight pointed upward in a commanding pose. "A student is to listen not silence, I never did such a thing with Celestia."

Starlight gave a deadpan to Twilight's accidental jump into ultra teacher mode and let her speak her mind for a moment before pulling off the magic and grabbed her mouth shut. "Okay, enough boasting, Ms. Best Student." Starlight turned over to look behind them and then in front of them to ensure no one heard them. "I have just been spying around, like you. Gathering notes as any good student would." She floated a notepad over.

Twilight silently cheered before puffing them to her room. The two landed in the room. Twilight didn't hesitate to give a normal cheer for Starlight once they were safe. "I'm so proud of you."

"It's nothing really." Starlight attempted to shrug it off. "Besides... you might be dead tomorrow. I need to think ahead." The unicorn mentally slapped herself for that last comment.

"Good thinking Starlight." Twilight padded her on the shoulder.

"What?" Again Starlight was dumbfounded. "That's all you have to say about..." She raised her hands to emphasize, "My attempts to stop your impending fate?"

"And thank you for that. Now let me see those notes." Twilight didn't bat an eye to those words and looked over the notes.

Again Starlight was at a loss for words. Her teacher was showing no sign of fear at all. "Are you sure there is nothing else you need to say?"

"Hmm," Twilight continued to read as if she didn't hear a word. "Three meters by four meters arena... And you even covered the depth of the arena's indent in the ground. Six centimeters..."

"Yes, I've handled a few magical battles of this caliber before." Starlight's own boasting was showing now.

"But this is useless in understanding Mira."

"Mira?"

"Princess Mira Vermillion Platinum, two-hundred-twenty-fourth heir of the Platinum regime. A regime which was put in place by H. P. Bloodcraft after he deemed the first Platinum to be a worthy opponent in battle."

"And where did you learn all of that?" Starlight sarcastically asked.

"I read all that before we first landed."

Starlight facepalmed herself for real this time before grabbing Twilight by the shoulders. "How is that more useful than battle tactics against a mare who wants to kill you tomorrow!" She shook her teacher a few times hoping the distress would finally get to her.

"That's just it. None of this stuff will help me understand why she won't kill me."

Starlight's eyes went wide and for a short moment her mind flashed back to her spying days and her failed attempted to get information out of a certain pink pony. "Stop channeling your inner Pinkie Pie and listen, the princess of the unicorns is going to kill you."

"No, I know she won't." Twilight snapped at the Pinkie Pie remark and gave a more determined look.

Seeing the honesty and hints of Applejack in Twilight's sole working eye made the unicorn finally relent and let go of the alicorn. "Fine, what makes you think this?"

Twilight sat back and took a deep breath. Even though deep within her she was very certain about this, she still needed extra confirmation so they could confront her real fears about tomorrow. "We need to mind-meld."

"Wait, what?" Starlight was completely dumbfounded by this answer more than any other. "Why."

"Just trust me, I need a confirmation." Twilight placed her hand on Starlight's forehead and connected their minds through magic.

In the shared mindscape, an image of a giant vulture appeared. "Realta told me that my previous incarnation existed in this timeline. That one of the biggest things I need to learn about while here was about her, Twilily." Twilight's voice echoed. "Though I've come to understand that she might not even be born yet and my true mission is to simply learn from her parents."

"Obviously, though I'm not even sure if Rex and Clover are her parents. Heck, I'm not even sure if they are banging yet." Starlight's words made Twilight's face flush red. "But what does that have to do with Princess Platinum?"

"It all falls on something that happened where my part of the journey began..." A memory formed in the mindscape and Twilight and Starlight entered it.

Twilight and Starlight found themselves surrounded by forest, standing on a path seeming familiar but not. Starlight walked over to the trees and though this wasn't from her own memories the image was so perfect that she could even smell the scent of each leave as they fell.

"Wait, this is the Smokey Mountains, just south of the Unicorn plains." Starlight noted. "I knew you took notes of everything, but..." She found herself lost in the different smells and even the sounds of the memories.

"You didn't think I could remember all that stuff," Twilight answered her. She also looked of the land but her face wasn't filled with happiness upon seeing this memory again. "The truth is after being away from everything I love for so long all I can do is rely on memories."

"I..." Starlight was caught off guard by these words. "I'm sorry that my mess up took you so far from this."

Twilight dropped the sadness and laughed. "No, this isn't a happy memory like the ones I often dream about. This is just the perfect memory needed to give me the answers I'm looking for."

"Oh," Starlight's ears lowered.

"The proof is in the smell. You think you are smelling the good scent the original place had." Twilight pointed over to a small shine in the tree. Starlight narrowed her eyes on the shine and was shock to find it was a bottle filled with liquid. "Several of them cover each tree. They were placed here to hide the stink just beyond this land."

"What? Why?"

"Because, this timeline isn't our home, but in fact something far worse. In this timeline, this mountain range was ruled over by a mighty warrior that lived in a giant facade. Determined to keep all evils outside this land far from her sight." Twilight turned to the entrances and spotted a group walking toward them. "As you will soon see."

"Okay," Starlight followed Twilight to the side of the road as the group got closer.

Starlight was truly surprised by Twilight's actions. She was glad that her teacher was finally opening up, even if it was a little. Their venture through timelines had moved so fast before they arrived in this timeline. Though they had spent the most time in the current one Starlight still only knew so much of the full adventure due to them being split apart during the early parts in other timelines. Twilight never once told her about the other adventures she had gone through before they found each other again.

Starlight's racing thoughts stopped at the sight of the group. Consisting of a version of Rainbow Dash with a metal wing, Soarin in a wheelchair, Discord who looked far older then he used to and a past-Twilight, who was wearing the same clothes from their first confrontation just before being separated by the time portal.

The four walked down the path until stopping right in the same spot Starlight and Twilight had landed in. The Past-Twilight looked around, appearing to smell the air. She looked to where her future self and Starlight were hiding, but couldn't see them, instead she noted the bottles of liquid the smell was coming from.

"See. I note everything."

Starlight deadpanned at her teacher's word. "I can see that."

Soon the group passed them and kept going forward. Starlight and Twilight left the woods to follow the group. After a few turns though it was clear they were moving toward the mountains, or rather toward the inner parts of the mountain.

Starlight leaned over and asked, "Are you going to tell me why we are here, yet?"

"You will see soon enough."

"Why not just tell me-" Starlight stopped at the sight of several crystals shooting out of the ground all around them. On pure instinct, she jumped out of the way.

Twilight stood still and let the crystal phase right through her. Starlight slapped herself upon remembering this was a memory therefore it would effect either of them. She stopped jumping back and moved forward to catch up with Twilight and she watched her past self attempt to fight all the crystal.

The crystals moved like branches grabbing anything they could get ahold of. Starlight tried not to laugh at the Past-Twilight's poor attempts to dodge and fight back. Discord slivering across the ground broke a few crystals before lifting Past-Twilight above the crystal.

Rainbow Dash took to the sky, flying over and grabbing Soarin lifting him up. He pressed a button on his wheelchair and blades shot out of the wheels. The two flew around knocking the crystals back.

"Wait, why aren't you using magic?"

"There was no usable magic in this world that I knew of." Twilight answered. "The ruler of this timeline had the entirety of Equestria magic proofed. It's what forced me later to take up weaponry."

"Oh, I've always wondered about that." Starlight watched battle go on longer the more she watch the more things became clear why Twilight was always wanting to push Starlight's knowledge of the sword.

"The truth is, this is the timeline I first found myself in after falling through the time hole you opened up. In this timeline Equestria was in ruins and each of my friends was leading separate rebel cells against the evil Nightmare Midnight."

"Nightmare... Midnight." Starlight wanted to question more about this unknown pony, but stopped when she saw the wain in her teacher's eye. The fear and most of all the hatred. Starlight wondered if this being was somehow connected to something else Twilight hadn't even realized yet. Starlight could ask more to prove her own theories and could follow this memory in helping Twilight, hoping something else could give her answers on Twilight's dark transformation.

Loud noises coming from a cave just ahead of the group caught the attention of the memory travelers. Out of the cave several large diamond dogs ran out and slowly surrounded the group. Their weapons raised and ready to join in.

Discord dropped Past-Twilight to the ground and raised his hands in surrender. Rainbow Dash and Soarin seeing the pointlessness of the fight chose the same route.

The diamond dogs lowered their weapons. The ones nearest to the front moved out of the way. Out of the caved walked a unicorn in a white ever flowing dress. Starlight was shocked to see it was the same style as the dress that Princess Platinum had wore to the dinner she had with Twilight and the others. She had yet to tell Twilight that she had been spying on them since hearing of the death battle and watched the whole dinner go down. Did Twilight know this though, is this why she was showing her this?

Her Teacher raised up her hand and pointed to the mare as the memory came to a halt. "Tell me, who does that look like?"

"I'm not sure." Starlight couldn't see the mare's face for it was covered in a veil. In fact all the mare's flesh was hidden from sight.

The unknown mare's waved over her army of diamond dogs. "So it seems, dearie, you want your death now," The mare spoke directly to Past-Twilight.

Starlight looked to her teacher at the sound of her breathing slowed. She searched her face for answers as all Twilight did was stay silent.

"I..." Past-Twilight attempted to speak, but confusion clouded her words.

Starlight jumped back at the scattered sounds of voices. However she calmed upon realizing the voices were Past-Twilight's thoughts. Starlight could sense so much fear toward this mare, but this still wasn't giving her any hints on who this mare was.

Past-Twilight pushed her thoughts away and asked, "Rarity I need to talk to Spike."

Starlight's eyes went wide. This mare was Rarity. This thin frail mare hidden behind a big dress and veil was Rarity.

Suddenly the giant dragon flew out of the cave and surrounded them. "And what is it you want with me?"

Starlight's eyes went wider at the sight of the giant beast. How could this be Spike? Seeing both these beings in this timeline was a sheer wreck to the senses. She remembered back to her old spying days of watching Twilight and her friends from the shadows in hopes of defeating them. She remember that version of Rarity well. "This can't be..." She spoke her thoughts aloud. "Rarity is a preppy bitch that loves showing off, Spike is a tiny dweeb with a crush."

Twilight laughed and froze the memory. "Really, you spied on us for months and that was your assumption? No wonder you are terrible at note taking."

Starlight crossed her arms in annoyance and huffed. "And I assume you knew them far better even when not around them."

"Well, I am their friend."

"And friends keep secrets." Starlight threw up her arms. "I bet you didn't even know Spike and Rarity shared their first kiss during the time I watched all your friends."

"That's my point." Twilight turned around to her. "I was their closest friend and even I didn't know they were dating let alone kissing."

"More of a pity kiss," Starlight shrugged. "I highly doubt they were dating in that moment."

"It's a shame you think that." On that que the memory resumed.

The Past-Twilight took a gulp and spoke up. "Spike and Rarity this may come as a shock to you, but I'm not the Twilight you knew," They looked curiously. "I'm from a different timeline."

"Oh really, " Rarity summoned a chair made of crystal and sat upon it. "Prove it dear. Tell me something about me that you would know and not something our Twilight would know."

"Fine," said Past-Twilight, as she gave another gulp. "I know that you design your dresses."

Rarity giggled. "Alright then now," she stopped and looked at Spike. "Now tell me something about Spike that our Twilight wouldn't know."

Twilight took a deep breath. "Rarity, in my timeline Spike had a major crush on you." Laughter cut her off and tore loudly over the area.

"Well, of course they laughed at you." Starlight couldn't help but smirk, "I laughed my ass off when I saw that kiss."

"Keep watching."

"What?" Past-Twilight's jaw dropped. "Will somepony please tell me what's going on here?" When no answer came Past-Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash and the others. They didn't have a clue what was going on either.

Finally, they stopped laughing and Rarity spoke. "Alright dear, enough jokes. Tell me, why are you here?"

On those words the memory slowed. Starlight looked to her teacher and saw fear growing on her face the closer Past-Twilight came to speaking. Twilight reached for her throat. Starlight narrowed her eyes on an old wound, a wound that Twilight would never tell her about.

"Spike... I... want... to.. know... who... hatched... you?" The Past-Twilight spoke, making Twilight grit her teeth and let the scene play in full speed.

Instant silence fell over them all. Starlight looked over to the giant Spike curious what his answer was and why Twilight would ask such a thing.

Upon hearing Past-Twilight's question, Spike instantly froze and shrank to his normal height. He ran and stood by Rarity. Spike's face was covered in absolute terror.

"Spike?" Past-Twilight said shakily.

Suddenly a strange looking crystal shot up from the ground and wrapped around Past-Twilight's throat. The rope choked tightly to her neck. The three others looked on in shock.

"Rarity, stop this now!" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"How dare you!" Rarity shouted as she got off her chair. "How dare you ask my beloved Spikey Wikey that question!" Rage consumed her voice.

Past-Twilight was shocked by those words. The words started repeating and got louder and louder as the memory faded.

Starlight jumped at the sight of Twilight falling to the ground. Catching her teacher she questioned, "Why did she try to kill you like that?"

"Not try," Twilight pushed her out of the way and waved her hand over the place where the memory was. The memory played through Rarity's words and Past-Twilight's choking over and over. "She succeed in killing..." Twilight twisted in pain as if she was feeling each choke. "Killing the old me."

Starlight pulled her over and slapped her over and over. "Stop it, stop torturing yourself." She stopped as dark magic pulsed from Twilight's horn. The two separated and Starlight threw down her arms in defeat. "Do you even care?"

"I... I..." Twilight waved her head back and forth letting the dark magic subside. The memories stopped replaying and Twilight sat up and leaned against nothingness. "I'm sorry, but my answers for understanding Mira are right here, if you won't help, I'll look on my own."

"What answers!"

"That Rarity is Mira!" Twilight finally spoke the truth.

"What?" Starlight pulled back. "Why would you think such a thing?"

"In that timeline I was told by a stallion known simply as 'F' the truth of time travel. Truth is things must always repeat. In that timeline a mare that acted very similer to Mira wanted to kill me. She loved a large serpent that could altar his size just like how Mira loves Dim."

"Your point is based on their fetishes-" Starlight was silenced by Twilight's magic.

"Both Mira and that Rarity lived harsh and dangerous lives to protect their lands. And though it wasn't always clear, so did the present Rarity. The Rarity from our time..."

Starlight pushed free of the magic and spoke up in defiance, "I thought you knew your friends well. How could present-Rarity ever have any similarities to a tyrant and a crimeboss?"

"Becuase all three of them would do whatever it took to defend the ones they loved."

"How?"

"How?!" Twilight answered back in shock as images played around them. Each one she quickly explained before letting them pass. "Manehattan, she nearly broke her mind almost letting us treat her like a slave." Another image flew by. "During the dragon migration she fought off three enraged dragons to protect Spike." Another image played. "You recall those diamond dogs, in our home timeline three of those diamond dogs nearly raped Rarity and she still fought them off, putting her life and even her body on the line to protect her friends. What I find most ironic was that in the alternate timeline one of those very same diamond dogs was her second in command. And was even named as the godfather of her future children."

Starlight fell back as more images played of all the good deeds and dangerous actions played through the mindscape. More and more played until finally Starlight broke the connection to the mindscape.

The two woke back up in the real world. Starlight jumped away and demanded answers. "Why show me all of this?"

"Because Rarity is Mira, Spike is Dim. They are the pre carnations of them, just like the yet to be born Twilily is the pre carnation of me. Which is why I'm not afriad of dying to her tomorrow."

Starlight's eyes went wide as she finally realized why Twilight was showing her all of this. "You are afriad that you might be forced to kill Mira tomorrow."

"Yes, for a reincarnation to be born the pre carnation must die."

"But, history states-"

"History is wrong!" Twilight shouted in rage. "History never said there was a war between the alicorns and the mortals they protected. History never spoke a single wendigo claiming to be king."

Hearing Twilight's words and actions made everything clear to Starlight. She knew she couldn't stop her teacher now. "Fine, just be careful. Please teacher." On that Starlight turned away and vanished in a teleport.

Deep in the darkest parts of the castle, two guards walked down a dusty hallway before stopping at a wall. The two looked both ways and made absolutely sure no one was watching. The two approached the wall and placed one hand on it.

The shadows of their flames flickered for a moment, making them stop. They looked around once more. The words of Clover about Rex's shadows still very clear in their heads.

The shadows did indeed flicker so they blasted them with magic. Nothing happened so they returned to their work. They placed one hand on the wall again and calmly spoke, "For the great leader of old." On those words, the wall opened to reveal a new pathway.

The two walked through with a bit more concern then before. Deep in their hearts, they knew they shouldn't be there. They stopped at the sight of a tall picture coming into the light.

They brought their torches to two tall candles that stood beside the picture and lite them. The picture became completely clear at this. It was of a unicorn mare. She was in bridal attire, and wore a small crown that looked just like the one Princess Platinum wore.

"We are sorry," On of them spoke as they both lowered their heads. "She continues her recklessness."

"Dim continues to only humor her weakness," the other spoke. "All because of his own weakness to her."

They stopped their complaint and prayed for answers. The room went almost silent.

However, after an hour it was quickly becoming more noticeable that in this quietness footsteps could be heard. They kept praying and hope the footsteps would go the other direction, but they didn't.

Instead, the guards' eyes opened at the sounds of the steps getting louder. It was as if the footsteps were right behind them.

On instinct, the one that spoke up first turned around with his weapon in hand. It was at the ready, but not too high in case it was the princess as he wished to not insult her even if he and the other guard were going behind her back.

He stopped at the sight of nothing. He took a deep breath to calm himself. Maybe he was just on edge. His eyes went wide a second later at the sound of crashing beside him. He slowly turned to see his ally now lying dead on the ground. Black blades were impaled in through his chest. They were coming from the ground, from the shadows.

He moved closer and the black blades twisted like tentacles before pulling back out of the body and into the shadows as if they were never there. He held up his weapon and pointed to the shadows and shouted. "You will not insult us again, Rex-" He was stopped as another blade stabbed through his head.

"Is my student getting that good?" A new voice spoke up that didn't belong to Rex at all. Out of the shadow behind the dead guard, a white unicorn head with a blue mane slowly pulled out.

It was none other then Stygian himself. His head reached out more as the black blade pulled back. His shadowy cloak followed his movement, clinging to his flesh like a web.

He looked to the picture they were practically worshiping and smiled. "Hello, Lady Mass Hysteria." He stopped as something caught his eye. He walked closer and looked over her arms. "Black lines, there was no decease mention in the record of your death. Interesting." On that he fell back into the shadows.

Back at the Hikina Port, Luna found what the guards wanted to show her. Needless to say she didn't expect to find herself walking among a field of corpses peppering the ground just outside the dock. She covered her mouth as she walked but it was more for the smell rather than the shock as these bodies were just barely beginning to decay.

The bodies showed no sign of fatal wounds. At most they had broken bones and cut flesh as if they tried their best to fight back. Yet there wasn't any sign of the attackers anywhere outside of the trail they left in their wake.

Luna stopped at the sight of a pegasus mare hugging close to something. She walked over to get a better looked. The mare was holding a filly barely old enough to walk. It too was dead. Her eyes went wide and the fear finally claimed her at the sight of even children dead.

"Princess." The soldiers ran over as she fell to a knee.

"I'm fine," She pushed them away. She stopped at something on the filly. She reached over and pulled the child free before throwing the corpse to the side in utter fear.

"Why-" The soldiers wanted to question but were stopped by the same thing she saw. They pulled back before puking at the sight of it.

The filly's chest had been ripped open and spread out like extra wings laid against her little real wings. On her stomach was an all too familiar symbol of a knife through a bull's head.

Luna backed up and looked over the field once more. "Check every filly in this feild..."

"But..."

"I said do it, now!" Luna screamed. She turned away from them and looked up to the sky. Under her breath she spoke, "Please tell me those were just old fiary tales, Teacher."

"Is that what he calls us?" Poor attempts to rap spat outward.

Her eyes went wide. Without warning each of the soldiers fell down screaming in agony. Remembering back to the old tales she channeled forth a spell into her horn and blasted it outward in a wave that stopped their pain.

"Damn, Sting. You gave away too much too soon." Another voice spoke up, this one far harsher.

Luna looked in all direction but couldn't see anypony beside her soldiers. She looked up to the sky and shouted. "Where are you Night Brothers?!"

"We here, you have to look. Just make sure you are spook." Sting spat.

"Please, don't." Fiend silenced his brother. "Listen, Princess of the night. Since you hold a very similar title to ourselves we will give you an ultimatum instead of killing you."

"Fine," Luna wanted to fight them head-on, but she still had no idea where they were and if the old tales were true fighting them blindly would only give them a better chance to still her soul. And an alicorn's soul would only make them far stronger than a mortal soul.

"Tell us where our former teacher is. We will also show the same kindness to any other of his students."

"..." She bit her limp. She knew what they wanted, revenge. She couldn't let that happen. Instead, she closed her eyes and channel forth some magic. She knew she couldn't beat them without knowing where they were, however, there was a way she could find them. Originally she agreed to listen to their words in hopes of reaching a truce with them. But what they wanted was far too much of a price.

Deep within her mind an image of Rex formed, he looked at her with shame for himself. The voice of Stygian yelling against her screamed in her head. She channeled more magic, and the image of Starswirl formed, the old wizard gave a smile. She channeled far more magic and her horn filled with maroon gas.

"Soldiers, be ready." She knew doing this spell without much experince would leave her wide open to attack.

Up in the sky, the moon moved upward before filling with the same maroon red color. the shadows around them moved and flowed. Among the corpses, the shadows moved more erratically. Over at the west end, the shadows stopped before shooting out spikes.

Fiend and Sting jumped out of that spot caught completely off guard.

"Now-" Luna stopped and fell to the ground as the magic became too much.

The soldiers blasted out magic from their horns, hitting the two hippogriffs head-on. The two matched that power with their souls they absorbed. The battle was strong and violent, but all fifteen soldiers could do was hold the soul stealers in place.

Luna attempted to stand back up. The memories of old yelling at her. "Damn it, I know that could have killed me, but..."

"Let me take over and I will kill them where they stand." A new voice spoke in her head. Her eyes twitched and changed form.

"No, I can handle them on my own!" She screamed. Fighting herself to stand Luna looked to hippogriffs and channel forth some alicorn magic. Blasting it outward, she combined it with her soldiers and it was finally enough to send the Night brothers flying off a few hundred meters.

The soldiers' cheers were short-lived as Luna fell back to the ground once again. "Princess." They rushed over to her.

"No..." She barely spoke. "We have to warn... them."

"Yes, but our mission is your safety." They picked her up in magic and marched back to the airship.

Up in the sky, the marron color on the Moon quickly faded from sight. However, this move had indeed been noticed by the few that were still awake.

The Moon's light poured slowly over the Four Towers of Faith. Blood Diamond looked out to the maroon light and smiled. "So our ex-wife attempted some dark magic." His eyes fell over the city just beyond the tower. "Not bad for her first time in over five thousand years."

He reached to the light. Opening his palm wide. In the center flesh peeled and out a crystal flowed. It grabbed pieces of the maroon color before returning to the flesh. "Using Stygian's spells without his permission and mixing them with dark magic. Are you determined to insult him and everything else your mother stood for?" He turned away and sneered, his eyes glowed a neon green and his voice changed, "Your mother, the first to command the shadows and the night."

Blood Diamond stopped at the sight of his reflection in one of the many crystals floating around him. The reflection showed his eyes altering. However, that wasn't what made him angrier as he could see his own shadow, being traced out by the shadow spell.

Though the spell was miles away it showed perfectly even his true shadow outward. The true self he preferred to keep hidden, a shadow filled with holes. "Her mother was a good pony, far better than your mother." His reflection spoke back to him.

"And yet she doesn't hesitate to insult her." Blood Diamond answered mirror before waving it away. The magic in his eyes dissipated and he walked back to his throne.

The maroon color on the Moon faded and the prince sighed a relief. "Finally, you relent Luna." He spoke far softer. "You should know by now how much I despise the truth." His voice had return to normal levels. However the royal we had dropped. "Truth showed me once that you could never love me more than these mortals. This hurt me most of all because showed my fears to be true, that no one loves my kind."

He held up his hand and crystal flowed over his sight, giving him a magnified look at the city. "Luna, you loved these mortals more than you could ever love me. If anyone should hate them more it is I, but now, here I stand as their only chance." He twirled his fingers and the image magnified even closer. "I wonder if they will make the right choice with this chance." Twisting again the image got close enough to see the last of the unicorns going home to sleep. It was so close that it was like he was walking alongside them. "Will they take it and save their race trusting in a halfbreed alicorn like myself, or fail as Rex failed you and her?"

Back on titan airship, Fredricson threw up his arms and with a loud voice continued his story, "The winds were so strong they nearly tore off the sails."

Adagio pulled her covers in fear. "Oh no..."

"But Sir Sereal rushed himself in the wheel of the ship, holding the thing in place. He pushed with all his might to keep the sails in." Fredricson posed the same way as the story. "He looked over to H. P. Halo and shouted-"

Speaking in a poor attempt to copy the prestige of the great leader, "Hold it together. How much closer?!"

Speaking next in a soft a monotone voice that Lady Cat nearly mistook for her own newphew's Mon's voice, "We are almost there, the good doctor spoke while pushing against the mainsail."

Fredricson threw his arms around in the motion often used to turn the wheel. "Yet the winds were only the beginning and lightning and thunder shouted outward."

"Please tell me they are going to make it." Adagio jumped up. Luckily lady Cat was able to catch her. "Mira needs that medicine."

"Which why they pushed harder." Fredricson lowered his arms and moved them like waves. "The water kicked, the wind punched and the lightning twisted all around. But out of the shadows, a voice called out from the afar." Fredricson jumped and held his hand over his brow.

Speaking in a deeper voice. "Over here, you are almost there." Returning to his original voice he finished describing what they saw. "Out of the clouds, an icy airship bowed down to their height. Out of its front stood a tall dark lavender unicorn named, Cea Crimson Fro-"

A loud alarm shot out interrupting the story. Fredricson pulled back out of his characters and looked over to the green light. "Wait a minute."

Lady Cat looked over as well. Her eyes went wide and pulled Adagio under the covers. "I guess we will have to finish that story later."

"But I want to know what happens next!" Adagio attempted to struggle, but Lady Cat pushed the ends under her.

"Arg, I be sorry about this." Fredricson dotted her on the nose. "But we need to check something. Get some sleep for now."

The two walked out of the room and left her to sleep. They made certain to lock the door behind them.

Author Notes:

I'm sorry this came out so late, this chapter took a lot longer to edit due to the new laptop taking it's sweet time typing. Either way, the new chapter is here.

As you can see I have taken a rather unique take on the characterization of Princess Platinum. Everyone likes to depict her as the classic princess and while at the time I seriously dislike this.

When she was young, she was this pretty, pretty princess. Spoiled, depending on everything and even had a guard doing whatever she said. But now as an adult, she takes things far differently. Her pretty princess side is now hidden under blood-soaked armor.

This is sort of my twisting on the stories where Rarity is a selfish princess. While at the same time I've twisted the stories of Spike being the loyal helper that he always seems to be. A while reversing the "age gap" haters keeping putting on this ship.

This chapter was probably the hardest chapter to write because I wanted to keep going. But this needed more restraint or there will be no more mystery in this season. I want to build more on these two and if I were to explain everything here, I would have nothing left.

Enjoy the chapter, give a comment, a like or favorite. For now this story is now on Winter Break. This hiatus will last a full month and return in February. Hope to see you then.


	17. S2 Chapter 15: The Bloodiest Battle

Morning arrived quickly with the bright yet bleak light of the Sun. Such a sight meant only one thing. The day of the battle had arrived. And yet there was already a raucous going on at the outskirts of the city.

A small explosion rocked the Titan Airship. The blast tore a hole in the side. Luckily the ship was already on the ground.

Within the explosion, Friedricson ran, shouting, "Where are you?! Ye be a blasted coward as well as an intruder." Below him, Lady Cat pulled a lever and extinguishers blew out the fires before they could spread.

Fredricson chased the figure behind the explosion. They had been chasing it all night. Despite their speed and the size of the airship, it was able to navigate the airship's large interior without much problem and still keep a could distance from them. But things had gone far enough. He knew this was the very end of the Titan Airship. There was nowhere more for this figure to run.

"Setting an explosion be a poor plan." Fredricson smiled as he cornered the intruder. Still surrounded by smoke though he couldn't get a good look at the face, only that it was a short pony possibly wearing some sort of tan brown fur coat. In the end, he had to stop this enemy, as the possibility was very clear this was an attack by Indigo Frost. "This is as far as you can go."

"Actually, everything went according to plan. The engines will be out for a while."

Fredricson was stopped by the voice of the intruder, so small and yet so familiar. "Who are you?" he aimed his cutlass forward. "No more hiding.

"A better question is how it took your systems a full hour to realize I was on this ship." The figure finally stepped forward, revealing its fleshy cloak.

Fredricson's eyes went wide to see a siren filly wrapped in a light tan fur coat hide cloak. However, it wasn't just she was wearing such a thing, but the fact that it was covered in the same tattoos and wounds that once belong to his son. The filly was wearing the flesh of his son, Mon.

"How? Where?" Fredricson could barely compute what he was seeing before him. His guard was now wide open and the filly rushed forward, stabbing him right in the thigh with a dagger and jumping over him in the same motion toward the exit.

Feeling pain shoot through his body brought him back to reality. He turned around and threw his cutlass before landing on the ground. The weapon missed due to a duck but was enough to cut off the hood of the intruder, revealing it was indeed a filly with purple ponytails. Fredricson slapped his hand hard on his leg and pulled out the knife He attempted to chase after her only for both his legs to go numb, knocking him to the ground again.

He reached for the wound only to realize her perfect movement and aim had sliced his chest without him sense it at first and hit an artery in his leg. Removing the knife had caused his legs to go numb from the shock and blood was now pouring to fast for his body to keep up.

He could hear footsteps making their way to him and he hoped they were Lady Cat as everything around him went black.

* * *

Dawn's light tore through a beautiful teal bedroom with pearl white pillars and a purple bed. The beams reached slowly over the eyelids of a sleeping naga. His eyes opened and he looked over to see a lovely princess lying beside him.

Seeing the naked form of her alongside his own made him want to turn away. Even after being together for four years now he was still not used to waking up beside her. However, he couldn't keep his eyes off her for long. Tentatively he looked down her back. He took note of every curve and muscle. Finally, he came upon two massive scars near the center of her back. Though they had happened many years ago, the images still hadn't faded, nor did the burn marks.

Too much time passed and he forced himself to look away completely. He got up from the blanket and looked to his armor. He grabbed each piece and placed them on quietly to ensure he didn't wake her.

He looked back to her and pulled the cover closer to ensure she wouldn't get cold. His eyes raised to his weapon beside the door. A mighty axe stood against the wall. Near it a rapier only half it's size laid on a mirror stand at the ready as well.

Seeing the weapons made him remember what was to happen today. He sneered at the bright light from the window. Though the sun had barely risen, it was far easier to see here than anywhere else in the city due to the mirroring directions of the buildings beyond here.

He walked to the window and studied the view. He could see many buildings include the Four Towers of Faith. From here it appeared Blood Diamond had not left his spot yet. Dim turned away from this and narrowed his sight downward where the garden stood. Just like always it could be seen from nearly anywhere within the inner working of the castle. The princess had the castle built this way to ensure the sight of her father's honor would weigh upon all. But none more did it weigh on than him.

A single shadow cut the sunlight for a moment. His eyes narrowed at some clouds that had gotten through the mirror buildings. "Possible rain on this day. Is this your way of mocking me? Rain used to bring her such joy because it meant that you were always nearby, but now she only sees hatred in them."

Seeing the clouds creep closer and closer made his mind flashback to a memory he wished never happened.

* * *

A younger Dim found himself traveling across a mud-soaked path as the rain beat down on everything. He held the umbrella over at a sound that was very different from the rain. The sounds of loud splashing.

He stopped and his eyes caught sight of a little unicorn filly kneeling at a statue. She was hitting her fist into the ground over and over, not giving any care to the splashes on mud gathering on her lovely pearl white dress.

Dim breathed heavily and stepped closer. He held the umbrella over her and attempted to speak. His mouth moved, but no words came out.

"Why are you here?" the filly questioned.

"This... is the third time this week. You shouldn't be out here Princess Platin-"

"My name is Mira!" She screamed out before hitting the ground so hard that blood poured into the puddle her hand was in.

Dim looked away and attempted to adjust his stance down to her height. Instead, she scooted away from him." Yes... but you must accept your titl-"

"I don't want that title!" She stood up and refused to look at him, instead, glaring to the statue, the figure of her father. "Make him take it back." She pointed to it.

"I..."

"I said, make him take it back!"

"I can't." Dim refused to look at the statue.

"He said you were the bravest," She raised her hand. "That you are the strongest." She punched at the statue's base. "He told me you were the best!"

"I am-"

"Then, make him take it back!" She screamed louder as she took another swing.

"I..."

"I said, make him take it back!" She swung again, this time harder.

"I..." Dim's face fell.

"Make him take it back!"

"I..."

No matter how many times she demanded Dim couldn't finish his words. He remembered his leader's words so clearly now as they were back then. "Love her, spoil her. She needs so much of it." He finally spoke clearly.

"Shut up!" She finally turned around. "You don't deserve to talk like him!" She punched at Dim. "You don't care about him or me!" She struck harder. "I hate you!"

Dim's face fell to her words and he let her punch him over and over. It was so much better than her rage toward her father because at least then his honor wouldn't be shamed. The echoes of each hit getting louder than any raindrop could ever be until the flashback ended.

* * *

In the present Dim found himself now walking down the hallway. His weapon was in hand and he was walking toward the room that had been given to Twilight. He wondered if his legs had moved on instinct. "Maybe I could?" he questioned. "Then she wouldn't need to..." He stopped himself as the sight of Twilight standing at the far end of the hallway.

Her approach was slow, each step making the grip on his axe tighter. Did she know his thought? Did she already realize what his instincts had led him to? He didn't know what to think or do as she got up right to him.

However, she stopped just within range and brought her singular working eye up to his height. His axe swung forward. With all his strength he stopped the attack. Twilight didn't even flinch. He was right, she knew what he was planning.

Twilight smiled at him as the grip released. "Thank you for proving me right about you as well."

Her words confused him but he answered all the same. "You knew I had come down here to kill you and you knew I wouldn't go through with it?"

"I knew you would do whatever it took to protect her." Twilight pushed the axe aside and walked ahead of him by two steps before stopping. "But you also knew that killing me would only make her worst."

"What are you talking about?" Dim saw his chance, this lining could help him scan Twilight of any dangers. "How much do you know?"

"Somehow so much and yet so little." she couldn't hide her laugh. Her answer only confused him even more.

"What do you mean? What is your group's true purpose?"

"Oh that's simple, they want something called an alathar. Meanwhile, all I want is to end a war..." Twilight kept her face hidden. "Before things get inescapably worse."

"Worse?" Seeing her leave he walked with her, hoping to get as many answers as he could get. He hadn't realized that Twilight was after her own. The two talked until they reached their destination.

The late morning air was deathly calm crisp with strife. Twilight and Dim Dusk arrived at the graveyard. Making their way to the arena, they spotted the princess kneeling at the statue of her father.

Twilight looked to the graves and to the statue before finally setting her sight on the naga. "Why are all these graves in this garden?" she questioned.

Dim Dusk waited until they were passed Mira to answer. Softly he spoke, "These are the soldiers that were found alongside the lord when he died."

"When did he..." She stopped herself. She felt as if she was asking too much especailly when she saw the tenseness in his shoulders grow with each word of her last question. "I'm sorry."

The two entered the arena and Dim led Twilight to her spot. There he finally caved, "She was only five years old."

Hearing those words made her sight go wide. Now everything made perfect sense. She looked back to that leap through his memories she had last night before looking back up to the statue, it was just as she thought. Sir Sereal died mere months, possibly even days after that memory.

Now she knew more than ever the stakes of this battle. She looked forward and reached for her kopises. Gripping tightly to the hilts she moved her sole working eye over the princess and waited for her to finish.

That wouldn't be long as Princess Platinum was already rising from the ground. The unicorn mare turned to her side and entered the arena. Magic already buzzing from her horn.

Dim Dusk pulled out a white cloth and took a deep breath. Speaking far harshly he pronounced, "When this cloth hit the ground the magic can start firing. And the battle will not end until either this arena is flooded with blood or this cloth is soaked red. Die or withdrawal that is the choice. Either way, blood will be spilled on this day." With that, the cloth was dropped.

Both mares watched the cloth moved through the calm air as best as they could while also keeping sight on the opponent. The closer it got to the ground the tighter their stance became. Everything slowed down around them to this moment. It was as if that cloth was the only thing that matter, ass if it was the only thing moving in the entire world.

The cloth softly pressed onto the ground. Despite this, the two charged in at full force.

Mira blasted first with a rapid-fire of small magical beams. Twilight moved with her left kopises to slice through them while dipping to her right, slicing out a small crescent moon shaped blast wave. Mira jumped clean over it and into a flipped dropping her rapier downward to an impale. Twilight barely knocked the attack out of the way with her left kopis by using the forcing of the flip combined with the kopis blocking to launch her to side.

However, with that move Twilight had been pushed to be the right place to standing above the white cloth. It was still dry outside of some dust being kicked up from their attacks. That wouldn't last as Mira quickly jumped forward into a stabbing motion chancing Twilight off guard and cutting her hand.

Just a small amount of blood splashed out but some of it indeed landed on the cloth. Twilight barely jumped back and blasted out some magic at Mira to knock up some wind to move the cloth out of the way.

Now it was stained with two drops. Just two wasn't enough to end the battle but it was shaving it far too close for Twilight. She charged up some magic and prepared for Mira's next attack.

Mira returned to her previous stance and smiled. "For your first time at this, you are certainly putting up a better fight than I hoped."

"Really, you expected disappointment." Under her breath, Twilight continued, "You are exactly like her." She charged forward, her kopis filled with magic. Slicing out a horizontal crescent and then a vertical crescent. The two attack far faster than the previous ones and Mira couldn't jump out of this time she pointed her rapier forward and filled it with her own magic, thrusting it made quick work of the attack, but she was quick to realize it was a decoy as Twilight rushed forward from behind the blasts and as it the broke she pushed on the rapier.

Twilight, remembering from previous fights that the rapier was a terrible weapon for clashing. Seeing her ground faltering Mira continued to fill her rapier with magic.

Twilight smirked and pushed back with the same, "You always underestimate every battle. Expecting the worse out of everypony."

Despite the badly proportioned clash, the stance stayed longer than either of them expected as magic shocked out from the battle. Dim Dusk himself kept a strong stance nevertheless. In the background, the onlookers couldn't but be shocked by all of this.

Above all, on a nearby roof, Starlight was shocked to see just how much her teacher could send off under the right conditions. It wasn't the strongest she had seen her, but it was far beyond their training bouts. "I had my doubts, but she may actually win this, right Silver Pear?"

"Yeah, yeah," he barely answered her as his mind was elsewhere. Pondering on the words that Starswirl told him.

"No, this battle is far from over," Rex was quick to correct the young student. Clover and himself were watching as well and getting ready to step in if needed.

The truth pulled out quickly as screams brought Starlight to attention. She returned her sight to the battle just in time to see blood splatter out from Twilight's armor.

Twilight grabbed her side and filled the armor with magic. Luckily the wounds were skin deep. She looked to the ground where the attack came from and saw white crystal reseeding back into the ground. "Crystal magic too..."

"Yes," Mira claimed her own smirk, "A little inheritance from my mother." She charged forward with another thrust, this time a rapid-fire of thrust each one laced with white crystals now tapering the edges of the rapier.

Twilight dodged and knocked most of the attacks, but quickly a few slices got in, cutting her arms and her legs, skin deep. The thin form of the rapier made it very easy to work through armor. However, Twilight quickly noted with the rapier altered with crystals, the weapon was far better at knocking back attacks as well as penetrating. She couldn't get enough room to make her own counters, yet the rapier was still thin enough to cut through her defenses with only minor difficulty. She had to think quickly before the princess gained the full offensive.

Mira meanwhile quickly noticed herself that something was off with Twilight's own attacks. Despite how hard she was pushing she could sense that Twilight was holding back. Angered by this she pushed her own ever harder and even changed things up with horizontal and vertical attacks, pushing Twilight back into another clash.

"Damn it, fight me!" Mira screamed.

"I am!" Twilight pushed back.

"Then stop holding back," The princess's boldness continued with a hard punch to Twilight's gut, breaking the clash and giving an opening wide enough for Mira to stab downward.

Twilight twisted in pain as her foot was stabbed through. She swiped with her right kopis and Mira ripped out her rapier and blocked the attack. Seeing this Twilight swiped with the left kopis and Mira used her fist to grab the blade. The princess's hand bled out but it was enough to stop Twilight's second attack.

"Stop holding back!" The princess filled her horn with magic.

Twilight tried her best to struggle but things were too well locked in place. She was utterly confused, she heard every word that the princess had said but they made no sense to her. She was already fighting at full strength. The only thing she had been holding back on her dark magic usage.

Twilight's eye widened, could Mira actually tell the kind of magic usage Twilight was relying on? She waved her head back and forth in disagreement, there was no way she could sense such a thing. As far as Twilight knew Mira only had access to unicorn magic. However, the princess did just show she had at least some knowledge of crystal magic. "Maybe?" She closed her eye and formed a new plan of attack.

Once she was ready Twilight pulled back her head and rushed her horn forward. Catching the bold princess off guard with no magic at all in her horn, simply using it as a battle ram.

The attack broke Twilight free and left a massive dent in Mira's armor. Seeing her own opening she brought in her arms and charged her kopis with far more magic.

Starlight watching this all go down gasped at the sight of maroon magic forming over the rim of the blades. "No teacher. Don't!"

In Twilight's mind, she commented one final time on her theory now knowing it to be true more than ever. "Rarity would often break down into outbursts when she wouldn't get things her way. Yes, you are Rarity..." No longer would she be unsure about this. It was certain to her now more than ever how this battle was going to go. She ran forward and swung outward and spoke aloud, "Double Crescent Moon!"

Rex glared as the double crescent waves of darkness before falling into his shadow. Much to Starlight's shock, he vanished from sight. Clover followed through the shadow as both of them appeared near the arena just out of sight. Starlight attempted to follow but the shadow faded and pathway with it.

Far above her sitting on a cloud Cold Blue himself watched. He had been given orders to learn as much about Rex's allies while they were in the city and though he had kept a quiet tap through sound magic on all of them he couldn't hide the fact he kept the biggest watch over Twilight.

He had been intrigued by her ever since he first saw her. However, it wasn't until her dark transformation twelve days ago did he long to get a closer look, particularly inside her mind. Though he was thousands of years older than Clover he was even worse at telepathic magic than she was at telekinetic.

he had been Rex's rival for many millennia and always kept up with him in battle and could only read him at a surface level. This is what brought an intrigue as the only ones that could break this barrier were dark magic users, with him being the exclusive that couldn't. Due to this Cold Blue would keep an eye on all dark magic users around Rex. Counting two other dark magic users including Rex's previous lover before Clover, Twilight with her prowess in dark magic was the only one that not only brought an annoyance from Rex but also a rage.

Within himself, Cold Blue could also sense a growth purely from watching her as well. However, he's couldn't quite place what this growth was or why.

Back on the ground, the battle was getting bloody and brutal very quickly. Twilight jump upward as blood poured from her leg, barely dodging a thrust that nearly went all through her leg. She flipped in the air, using the waves her wings hidden from sight. She landed throwing some magic to slice at Mira's back.

Seeing this Mira sidestepped and turned to punch the hilt of her rapier into Twilight's gut sending her into a roll. Twilight blast dark magic out random to catch Mira off guard.

The rapid-fire made Mira toss a shield of crystal. However, at the strength of the attack, she knew this wouldn't hold for long.

Twilight came to a landing by stabbing one of her kopis's deep into the ground. She looked to Mira's shield and aimed her hand out to it. "Dark Embrace!" A giant maroon hand-stretched on her hand the shield.

Seeing the attack Mira sent up several crystal pillars. The giant hand slipped pasted each one and wrapped around her shield. It pushed down tightly, cracking it with ease. Though, Mira smiled and aimed her rapier toward Twilight. She bent her legs and kicked her feet down, launching herself and rapier through the shield, stabbing the giant hand.

Twilight winced as blood poured from her hand. However, Mira kept going until her rapier was tearing through Twilight's real hand. Punching through the tip went right for her chest. Twilight barely stopped the attack as Mira's thrust movement came to a halt. Now pinned in place Twilight was forced to swing her only good hand. Unable to block in her own, Mira turned her back to the attack hoping the armor would stop it at this range.

Blood poured from both of them now as Twilight's kopis was only slowed by the armor. Mira pushed forward hoping her rapier would get closer to her heart. Twilight in opposition pulled back for another swing to Mira's back, slashing it again and again.

Princess Platinum in all her glory pushed forward despite her wounds. She knew Twilight would be pushing her for a withdrawal. She knew Twilight wasn't aiming for the kill as she could have aimed with the tip of the kopis and instead used the body. "I will not fall... Not like him." She yelled through her pain.

Twilight's pinned hand shook from those words. She knew Mira's determination was strong, but this was too much. The battle had been hard and long, and despite how fast their speed was three hours had and still, the princess of all unicorns refused to relent and now she knew why. The previous ruler relented and... died.

As the rain finally broke forth and poured over the arena Dim Dusk couldn't help but remember back to the funeral. Gritting his teeth he moved forward and asked her to give in. "Please, Mira."

"Never, never!" She struggled back into a stance. Kicking her feet forward into another thrust, another rush for victory.

Twilight looked at this with shame and took her own stance. They knew what was coming and deep down Twilight hoped it wouldn't end like this as she aimed the tip toward Mira.

Lightning clashed down at the very center of the arena as both attackers struck for blood. And as they wanted, or didn't want blood showered out over the arena in all directions.

"Twilight!" Starlight shouted in fear as blood splattered from her teacher's chest. She had moved just a second too slow. Her kopis had only gone an inch through the armor, being slowed by the thickness her kopis yes, but also by her hesitation.

At the same time, Mira's rapier was slicing through Twilight's chest with ease. This sent utter confusion through Starlight's mind as she watched her teacher's armor fold like paper. Twilight barely could stand as the rapier had torn through a falt in her armor. The very same falt. Starlight's eyes widened. It was the same spot where Cold Blue stabbed nearly two weeks ago during her teacher's dark transformation.

Twilight was so drastically wrong in the power of the weapon as it grazed just millimeters to the right of her heart into her heart. The only thing that stopped it from punching deeper was her shredded hand, almost torn in half, punching against the hilt of the rapier. However, the pain was still so intense. Liquid flooded through her armor and splashing on the ground. Twilight's sight wained greatly.

Her arms shook to pull herself back into a stance but it was pointless. One of her kopises was on the ground, the other despite caked in the enemy's blood could barely be held in place. Her mind raced on everything, so faster that she didn't even sense the princess laying the tip of a hidden dagger against her throat.

"Looks like you will be ending your journey here." Princess Platinum smiled as her horn glowed. She didn't plan on killing her, but the enemy had managed a good fight but now it was over. Crystals wrapped around Twilight's weakened legs.

A loud shred tore through the air. Mira stopped for only a moment. Spitting up a large amount of blood. She felt massive pain in her side. Feeling the heavy gash tearing through her gut. She looked down to see a dark claw ripped through her armor like paper.

The claw clenched down twice making her twitch in pain, making bile and blood rise up from her stomach. The fingers moved inside her as if feeling each tube of her intendants. The claw pushed in deeper pulling Mira back in reality. She dropped the dagger and gripped hold of the claw, stopping all advance.

Laughter echoed outward making her finally look up to Twilight, or who was standing in her place. A mare with pale blue patches of frostbitten fur stared back at her with a twisted grin. Laughter echoing from it despite her mouth not moving at all.

In fact, the laughter was getting louder and louder. Mira looked in other directions as the sound amplified into all directions. At the same time, all other sounds were going to a painful ring. It wasn't long before she realized the laughter was echoing deep from within her own head, and yet it was clearly coming from the pale mare in front of her.

Without warning a magic pulsed outward, knocking Mira back at least a full meter and down to her knees, shredding the flesh of her legs across the ground. At the same time, the rapier which was still tightly gripped in her hand had been pulled out of the pale mare, pouring more blood out, yet the pale mare refused to falter.

Mira barely had time to react and a beastly hand rushed forward at her mouth and punched her whole body to the ground. The ringing and laughter stopped at the blood soak claw punched her hard into the ground over and over.

"How? What?" Mira's eyes raced in confusion. The same armor as Twilight, the same wounds, the same position, everything she saw told her this was Twilight. However, every instinct told her this wasn't Twilight at all. All she could think was a simple word, "Pale mare?!" Her words made it finally stop.

It backed away and finally opened its mouth, laughter with its real mouth. For the first time, everypony could hear the evil wales. The more it laughed the more it's body distorted. The wings clacked loudly through the illusions that still kept them hidden from Mira's sight. All of them could only guess which way, why and how the sounds were being made. The back popped just as loudly as bony spikes ripped through the armor, making it hunched down.

"Pale Mare!" Princess Platinum shouted back at the laughter as magic filled her horn. "Your tricks will end and you will bow to me!"

"Rex..." Clover jumped as another magical pulse was shot off.

"I know." He took a stance, "But we are nowhere near that altar." His chains moved through his shadows.

"Yes! That name will do for now!" The monster roared out and rushed forward, punching Mira's head hard into the edge of the arena. Her crown flew off and Mira's head was lifted again for another punch. "You will call me, the Pale Mare!"

The Pale Mare as she was known now lifted her upward and shook the princess in the air. "I the pale darkness with all, with this darkness you will be SHATTERED-" The Pale Mare was stopped upon feeling Dim's axe against her back. It turned to the naga and growled.

Dim's eyes widened, "Whatever you are? The Pale Mare, Shattered, Twilight, you will let the princess go-" He was stopped as Mira heard his words and began stabbing the beast repeatedly, "Stop, Mira!"

"Never, I will win, I will win!" She screamed through her pain. "I don't need any help, especially from you!"

The Pale Mare looked to Mira's arm and licked her lips and grabbed tightly, stopping the attack.

Mira's eyes went wide and she wailed in pain. It was the only thing damping the cracking sounds of the bones in her arm. Mira screamed louder in agony as the grip pushed down tighter.

"No!" Dim swung forward only for him to hit nothing. Even though just seconds ago he had his weapon against the skin the Pale Mare managed to dodge the attack so easily, jumping at least twenty feet into the air with a single swing of wind. The Pale Mare crashed her talon-like feet into Dim's back.

The Pale Mare jumped again as chains shot out of the nearby shadows. She tossed Mira away and rushed around the arena. Dim jumped to Mira's safety.

Rex's eyes went wide, realizing this the Pale Mare was now heading right for him. Despite Twilight having no prior knowledge of how his shadowmancy fully worked even in this crazed state, she was able to perceive him as the attacker. He pulled his chains back, and Clover aimed her bow staff forward. Starlight just stood by in shock, she didn't know at all what to do.

The two warriors charged forward only for crystal's walls to rise up all around the arena. "No," Mira screamed. "This is my battle!"

"But-"

"I said shut up! I will defeat her..." Mira's feet struggled. The Pale Mare looked to her and gave a toothy grin, charging forward at full force. Dim rushed forward as well, totally ignoring his princess's words.

Mira herself just held up her rapier with her other hand and closed her eyes. Her words before were just purely her pride, but her next words were the only ones she knew to be true, "Take care... my guardian..."

The teeth got closer and closer to Dim. As quick as the attack was made Mira teleported in the way aimed rapier forward tearing through the Pale Mare's mouth and pinned her into place.

Realizing the attack made contact, Mira opened her eyes tackled the Pale Mare to the ground and jammed her rapier deep into the ground. However, despite having the body of blade puncturing through entirely and laying against the spinal cord the Pale Mare refused to relent, roaring and screaming as if the weapon wasn't there at all.

Seeing the effect her weapon did little to the enemy, Mira placed her broken arm into place to pin the weapon down. She pulled back her good hand and punched the chest of the Pale Mare over and over, aiming right at the very spot she first stabbed just before this evil transformation.

Each punch left a big dent in the armor. It's swing cracked Mira's own hand, yet she refused to stop until the thrashing stopped. However, nothing she did seemed to have any effect all. When her hand eventually snapped she stopped and fell to the side. The pain ultimately reached its peak and numbness followed.

Mira's eyes were so weak. Her bones were shattered, her pride was shattered and her pain was slowly following behind. She now understood the meaning of the Pale Mare's first words to her all too well.

Deep within her head, the words echoed aloud. "I the pale darkness with all, with this darkness you will be SHATTERED."

Shattered!

Shattered!

Shattered!

A loud shattering sounds echoed around the arena, snapping her back to reality. Mira fought her sight and looked to the source. Much to her shock, the Pale Mare was bashing her hands into the ground, dark magic blasting upward out of her with each bash.

The Pale Mare, shattered in her twisted laughter was pushing her mouth up the rapier. Despite the blade now tearing through her teeth and skull, she kept pushing until the rapier flowed out completely. The weapon made a loud popping sound, still pinned in the same place in the ground. The Pale Mare simply turned away from the weapon and punched away, breaking the crystal outline and the metal easily.

The dark magic stopped flowing and pulled back to the Pale mare, wrapping around her head. She felt over her face, pushing fingers between the large gash through her skull. Measuring out the full wound she placed her hand on both sides.

Much to the shock of all, she pushed the skull closed. The dark magic moved wrapped tightly to her flesh before forming into maroon liquid and filled the gaps in the flesh, bones and any part of the wound before falling to the side and vanishing. The wounds were instantly healed by this liquid as if they had never happened.

The Pale Mare brought her hands down and looked to Mira. "That fucking hurt!" Her body started to distort again at the sight of Mira. The Pale Mare's arms stretched and thinned and each of her fingers tripled in length.

Seeing her aim and the waining of her sight finally ending Mira gave in and turned away. She looked to the white towel. it was almost caked in her blood. She knew she only needed to wipe the blood from her broken hand over it. She didn't want to admit defeat, but she hoped this would stop the Pale Mare in place and let the weak Twilight return.

The Pale Mare laughed and walked forward, reaching closer, her legs now stretching in the same form as her arms. Her grin got bigger and more beastly with each passing second.

A soft sound cut through the gore laughter. Without warning, the Pale Mare stopped. Mira noticed the same for a moment. She flinched a few times before dropping her guard at the sound of music. The soft sounds echoed from an ocarina.

They all turned to see somepony at the far end of the arena. Rex's eyes narrowed and his chained dropped, "So, Cold Blue. You are here as well."

Cold Blue gave no response as he moved into the arena. The crystal wall did little to stop at his advance, falling around him. Faster than others could compute he rushed over and knocked Shattered to the ground.

For the first time ever, the dark magic ended. Cold Blue aimed his ocarina blade at the throat. he stopped his advance at taking her life at the sight of the tears that had been pouring from the eyes the whole time. Despite what the others were seeing Twilight had been fighting this evil transformation the whole time.

Another dark magic pulse went outward. This was far softer and less harsh. Cold Blue pulled back his weapon and played another group of notes. The transformation reacted to each note, reverting each limb back to normal, each bone back to shape. From arms, legs to the back, everything was returning back to normal.

His eyes raced over to Princess Platinum. His eyes once again filled with rage. Seeing what he wanted Mira turned away and finished her advance. She placed her hand over the towel and beat her blood over it until the white was completely red.

Cold Blue dropped his rage. Taking a deep breath he stopped playing before raising his ocarina dagger upward.

"No, don't!" Starlight pleaded.

"I won't, this time. She is still fighting it, she is not ready yet." On that, he turned the sharp end to his wrist. Much to the shock of the others, he cut his wrist open.

Starlight gasped as the blood poured forth, it was the same maroon color as the smoke her teacher breathed. The same liquid that had sealed her wounds so easily.

Cold Blue made sure to move as quickly as possible as he poured the maroon colored blood over any remaining wounds. He knew he had very little time before the wounds would be unhealable. However just as he thought each wound slowly sealed up.

"There, there, drink up." Cold Blue moved his wrist over to her mouth to heal the inside next. "Please, mighty beast calm your rage."

Starlight smiled at the sight of Twilight returning. She didn't know how he was doing this or why she was simply glad to have her teacher back. Twilight breathed heavily before falling back to the ground unconscious.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Sorry to everyone that this chapter came out so late. The series is back on track now with this incredibly gory chapter. This one gave us so much. In particular the important of the Pale Mare.

As always comment, like and favorite. I would like to hear your reaction to easily the toughest fight scene I have ever created. Want to keep with updates, follow me here or on my Twitter. /Gryphonstar5678


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